Private equity executive James A. Kohlberg has donated $30 million to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law to help the center conduct research on Supreme Court reform.
Kohlberg is chairman of Kohlberg & Co., a firm he co-founded in 1987 with this father, the late Jerome Kohlberg Jr. The elder Kohlberg is the “K” in Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts Co., where his son James was a former executive.
James Kohlberg has been chairman of Kohlberg & Co. since 2007.
“We are at a tipping point,” James Kohlberg said in July 23 news release announcing his donation. “Without significant reform, the U.S. Supreme Court will remain unchecked, jeopardizing constitutional values and our democracy for generations. I can think of no better institution than the Brennan Center to lead the critical work ahead to hold the Supreme Court accountable.”
The Brennan Center, an independent nonpartisan and policy organization at the law school, was founded in 1995 by former law clerks to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr., who served from October 1956 to July 1990.
The donation will create the Kohlberg Center on the U.S. Supreme Court that will, among other things, publish policy reports and research, convene scholars and “advance proposals for Supreme Court reform,” the news release said.
“We will use Jim Kohlberg’s generous gift to deepen the public’s understanding and broaden support for reforming the court,” Michael Waldman, president and CEO of the Brennan Center, said in the news release.
President Joe Biden recently unveiled a series of Supreme Court reform recommendations: setting term limits, suggesting Congress pass a binding ethics code for the justices and advocating a constitutional amendment that eliminates presidential immunity for crimes committed while in office.
