The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law is excited to announce that Jesse Wegman, former editorial board member of the New York Times, has joined as a senior fellow in the Office of the President at the Brennan Center. He works with the Kohlberg Center on the U.S. Supreme Court, the Future of the Constitution Advisory Committee, and Brennan Center Ventures on electoral policy and democracy reform. Today Wegman published his first piece for the Kohlberg Center, “The Long History of Supreme Court Reform.”
This spring, Wegman will launch a regular newsletter on the Court, Constitution, reform, and the law.
In his 12 years at the Times, Wegman specialized in the Supreme Court, democracy, and the rule of law. He wrote more than 1,000 editorials and signed pieces on such topics as partisan gerrymandering, the absence of a Supreme Court ethics code, and presidential immunity. At the Kohlberg Center, he will continue to write about the Court, focusing on the institutional changes necessary to make the institution more democratic. In addition to essays and analyses, Wegman will inaugurate a Kohlberg Center newsletter with the latest on the Court. Wegman will also write about electoral policy and other democracy reforms.
Wegman is the author of Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College (St. Martin’s Press, 2020) and The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People’s Constitution (Celadon Books, forthcoming, June 2026). Wilson was, in Wegman’s words, “the most democratic of all the framers.”
Wegman has been a regular commentator on MSNOW, CNN, and many other national and local TV and radio programs. He earned a law degree from NYU School of Law. He will continue publishing in the Times as a contributing writer.
“Jesse Wegman is an ideal addition to our work on Supreme Court reform, democracy, and the Constitution,” said Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center. “He is one of the nation’s most respected journalists, who has been explaining the Court to millions of Americans. In this new work with the Brennan Center, Jesse can help build the public case for reform.”
About the Kohlberg Center
The Kohlberg Center on the U.S. Supreme Court was established in 2024 thanks to the philanthropy of Jim Kohlberg. The Kohlberg Center catalyzes solutions to advance overdue reforms of the Court by bringing together legal and policy experts, historians, and researchers to advance ethics and accountability and forge broad and bipartisan support for solutions to strengthen this vital institution.
