Tonja Jacobi

Areas of Expertise

Supreme Court, judicial behavior, criminal procedure, constitutional law

Courses

Constitutional Criminal Procedure, Supreme Court Oral Argument and Strategy

Biography

Tonja Jacobi PhD is Professor of Law and Sam Nunn Chair in Ethics and Professionalism at Emory University School of Law. Professor Jacobi specializes in Supreme Court judicial behavior and public law. Her areas of interest include judicial politics, Supreme Court oral arguments, criminal procedure, legislative process, and constitutional law. Combining doctrinal, empirical, and formal analysis, Professor Jacobi examines how judges respond to institutional constraints.

In particular, she is a renowned expert in Supreme Court oral argument: in a series of empirical studies covering sixty years of arguments, she has identified patterns and prejudices in judicial and advocate behavior, and has shown that case outcomes can be predicted based on those behaviors. Supreme Court justices have commented on this work and said it changed the Court. Professor Jacobi has published in over sixty peer review and law review journals, and has a casebook co-authored with her Emory and Northwestern Law students.

Professor Jacobi also regularly writes Op Eds in major periodicals such as the New York Times and the Washington Post, analyzing Supreme Court behavior and implications of the separation of powers system more generally. From 2023–2024, she authored a regular column in Bloomberg Law, Questions Presented, examining thorny issues facing the US Supreme Court and ethics in the legal profession, including Supreme Court reform, the Trump indictments and gag orders, and specific cases and issues before the Court.

She has a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University, a Masters from the University of California, Berkeley, and a law degree with first class honors from the Australian National University and a BA with first class honors from the Australian National University. Professor Jacobi is the faculty advisor to both the American Constitutional Society and the Federalist Society.