Event to Analyze the Jurisprudence of Supreme Court Justice Stevens

As part of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the dedication of Martin Luther King, Jr., Hall as the home of the UC Davis School of Law, the 2009 UC Davis Law Review Symposium will examine the career of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the longest-serving member of the Court and the man often described as leader of its liberal wing.  The day-long event will feature Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Linda Greenhouse, former U.S. government officials, and other legal experts, many of whom served as law clerks to the Justice.  These experts will analyze issues of terrorism, abortion, capital punishment, affirmative action, and other controversial legal issues.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place on Friday, March 6 in the Wilkins Moot Courtroom inside King Hall on the UC Davis campus.  Beginning at 9 a.m. with opening remarks from Law School Dean Kevin R. Johnson and a videotaped address from Justice Stevens, the symposium will consist of three panels, each lasting ninety minutes:  "Liberty," at 9:30 a.m.; "Equality" at 11:15 a.m.; and "Security" at 2:00 p.m. 

Born in Chicago in 1920, John Paul Stevens earned his law degree from Northwestern University School of Law in 1947.  After clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Wiley B. Rutledge, he led a litigation practice in Chicago until his appointment as general counsel to an Illinois commission investigating the conduct of state Supreme Court justices.  His outstanding work led to an appointment as a Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in 1970.  President Gerald Ford appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1975.  The Republican appointee has increasingly been perceived as a liberal, a perception he attributes to a rightward shift on the Court rather than to changes in his own judicial outlook.  Among his noted recent opinions are his opinions for the Court in several cases involving the rights of persons held in detention at sites such as the naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as well as his dissent in Bush v. Gore, the decision that helped George W. Bush win the 2000 election.  Justice Stevens was most recently in the public eye on Inauguration Day, January 20, when he administered the oath of office for Vice President Joe Biden.

The Law Review Symposium will begin with "Liberty," a panel discussion examining Stevens's view of constitutionally protected liberty as it applies to criminal justice, capital punishment, gay rights, abortion, and other issues.  Participating in this session will be:  Linda Greenhouse, who covered the U.S. Supreme Court for The New York Times from 1978-2008 and who authored Becoming Justice Blackman, a biography of Justice Harry A. Blackman; Jeffrey L. Fisher, Associate Professor of Law and Co-director of Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Stanford Law School; Jamal Greene, an Associate Professor of Law at Columbia Law School who clerked for Justice Stevens;  and Elisabeth Semel, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law.  The panel will be moderated by David F. Levi, Dean of the Duke University School of Law and a former Chief U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of California.

The "Equality" panel will explore Stevens' view that "there is only one Equal Protection Clause" and his jurisprudence on desegregation, affirmative action, discrimination, and race relations.  The discussion will be moderated by Cruz Reynoso, the Boochever and Bird Professor of Law Emeritus at UC Davis School of Law, an internationally known civil rights leader who was the first Latino on the California Supreme Court, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest award.  Joining the discussion will be three former law clerks to Justice Stevens:  Diane Marie Amann, a Professor of Law at UC Davis School of Law and Director of the California International Law Center at King Hall, a former Stevens clerk  who is at work on a biography of the Justice; Teresa Wynn Roseborough, Senior Litigation Counsel for MetLife, Inc., and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General, whoserved as one of the principal attorneys for the Gore campaign in the litigation that followed the 2000 Presidential election; and Andrew Siegel, an Associate Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law.

The "Security" panel will explore Stevens' treatment of clashes between individual and state security, with an emphasis on national security issues as they apply to the environment amd post-September 11 counterrorism.  Moderated by Kenneth Manaster, Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law and author of  Illinois Justice:  The Scandal of 1969 and the Rise of John Paul Stevens, the panel will include Daniel A. Farber, the Sho Sato Professor of Law and Director of the Environmental Law Program at UC Berkeley School of Law and a former clerk for Justice Stevens; Eugene R. Fidell, President of the National Institute of Military Justice; Deborah N. Pearlstein, Associate Research Scholar at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School for Public & International Affairs, former clerk for Stevens, speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, and founding Director of the Law and Security Program at Human Rights First; and Kathryn Watts, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Washington School of Law, who also clerked for Justice Stevens.

The event is hosted by the UC Davis Law Review, one of the fifty most-cited legal periodicals in the United States, and the UC Davis School of Law, one of the nation's top law schools.  Known for its outstanding ranking, small size, unusually accessible and dedicated faculty of renowned scholars, and uniquely supportive learning environment, the School of Law offers a challenging academic program with diverse specialties including business law, environmental law, international and comparative law, intellectual property, immigration law, constitutional law, public-interest law, and more.  With award-winning trial and appellate advocacy programs, clinics, and externships, five student-run journals, and more than forty active student organizations, the UC Davis School of Law sets the standard for excellence in public university legal education.

For more information, please visit the UC Davis Law Review website.