Seminars at Steamboat will welcome The New York Times Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak and former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to its annual public policy speaker series in summer 2009.

Liptak will speak July 16 at the Strings Music Pavilion about the topic “The Roberts Supreme Court in the Obama Era.”

“What happens on the court is of tremendous interest to the country,” Seminars at Steamboat spokeswoman Jane Stein said this week. “There will be changes on the court (under President-elect Barack Obama), and that always gets a lot of attention.”

Stein added that because the calendar year for the U.S. Supreme Court ends in June, Liptak also will be able to comment about what happened during the course of the year and what cases are coming before the court during its next session.

Tagliabue will speak Aug. 13 about “Drugs and Sports: The Evolving Playbook.”

“This has been on our agenda for awhile, because Steamboat is Ski Town USA,” Jane Stein said. “While the big issues with drugs don’t really deal with skiing, everyone is interested in sports.”

Tagliabue’s commentary will extend beyond professional football to address drugs across the sports realm, Stein said.

Seminars at Steamboat has other speakers in the works for its 2009 series, but they are not confirmed at this point, Stein said. At least two more speakers will be booked.

At the end of the summer, Seminars at Steamboat’s board convened to discuss potential topics and speakers for the next year’s series.

“We bat around topics we think would be of interest, then we identify individuals under those topics,” said Bob Stein, who sits on the board and heads Seminars at Steamboat’s development committee.

Last summer was the first year the seminars were held at the new Strings Music Pavilion.

“We had upwards of 400 to 500 people at the seminars,” Bob Stein said. “It’s a wonderful audience.”

After-seminar “Dutch Treat” dinners, where donors can dine with the speakers and continue the discussion with other Friends of the Seminars, will continue in 2009, Bob Stein said. That tradition also started this year.

– To reach Melinda Dudley, call 871-4203

or e-mail mdudley@steamboatpilot.com