Vanderbilt hosts conference on ‘Neglected Justices’

Posted on Monday, Mar. 31, 2008 — 11:42 AM

“Judicial Reputation: A Conference on Neglected Justices” opens at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 3, at the Vanderbilt Law School with a keynote address by G. Edward White, the David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law.

The lecture, to be held in the Law School’s Covington Room, is free and open to the public.

The aim of the conference, sponsored by Vanderbilt’s Program in Constitutional Law & Theory, is to investigate the question of judicial reputation by examining the lives and work of Supreme Court justices who were notable in their own time but who have since received scant attention from scholars, lawyers or judges.

White, a member of the UVA faculty since 1972, served a clerkship for Chief Justice Warren of the U.S. Supreme Court, has been a Guggenheim Fellow and has published 12 books. He is the recipient of numerous honors for his books and other publications, including becoming a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in history.

The remainder of the conference schedule is listed below. The events on Friday will be held in the Law School’s Bartholomew Room and on Saturday in the Covington Room.

Friday, April 4

Early Supreme Court- 9:00-10:15 a.m.

Samuel Chase -Stephen B. Presser – Northwestern University School of Law – “Samuel Chase: In Defense of the Rule of Law and Against the Jeffersonians”
James Iredell – William R. Casto – Texas Tech University School of Law – “There Were Great Men Before Agamemnon”
Commentator: Mark Brandon – Vanderbilt University Law School

Marshall Court – 10:30-11:45 a.m.

William Johnson – Mark R. Killenbeck – University of Arkansas Law Center
Bushrod Washington – Herbert A. Johnson – University of South Carolina School of Law, Emeritus – “Justice Bushrod Washington: Maybe John Marshall’s Twin. . . But Not Identical”
Commentator: Daniel J. Sharfstein – Vanderbilt University Law School

Civil War Era – 1:15-2:30 p.m.

John Catron – Austin L. Allen – University of Houston – Downtown
John McLean – Paul Finkelman – Albany Law School
Commentator: Alfred L. Brophy – University of Alabama School of Law

The Gilded Age 2:45-4:00 p.m.

David J. Brewer – J. Gordon Hylton – Marquette University Law School
Rufus W. Peckham – James W. Ely, Jr. – Vanderbilt University Law School – “Rufus W. Peckham and Economic Liberty”
Commentator: Linda Przybyszewski – University of Notre Dame

Saturday, April 5

Early Twentieth Century – 9:00-10:45 a.m.

George Sutherland – Samuel R. Olken – John Marshall Law School – “Justice Sutherland Reconsidered”
Pierce Butler -David R. Stras – University of Minnesota Law School
Sherman Minton – Linda C. Gugin – Indiana University Southeast – “Sherman Minton: Restraint Against a Tide of Activism”
Commentator: Lisa Bressman – Vanderbilt University Law School