Jackson Center Sets Roundtable Discussion
Supreme Court Law Clerks To Attend Session
The public is invited to a morning Roundtable discussion that will convene four of the U.S. Supreme Court Law Clerks serving the Court at the time of the second unanimous opinion regarding the desegregation of public schools, Brown v. Board of Education II, was handed down on May 31, 1955.
The opinion ordered that states end segregation of public schools with "all deliberate speed."
The May 18 Roundtable will be held at Lenna Hall, Chautauqua Institution, at 10:30 a.m., moderated by Professor John Q. Barrett. The event is provided free of c h a r g e . Supreme Court law clerks participating in the Roundtable are: Gordon B. Davidson (Justice Stanley Reed); Daniel J. Meador (Justice Hugo Black); Earl E. Pollock (Chief Justices Vinson and Warren); E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr. (Justices Jackson and Harlan).
According to Gregory L. Peterson, president of the Robert H. Jackson Center, the Roundtable is an opportunity to go behind the scenes, to listen to real-life, personal accounts and perspectives of the events, the people and the thinking that brought about monumental change for all of society.
"The Roundtable is sure to be as candid and engaging as the case and circumstances surrounding it were compelling and life-altering in their day, 50 years ago," he said. "We greatly appreciate these four law clerks who are eager to share their insights and the expertise of Professor John Q. Barrett as discussion moderator."
Barrett is a professor of law at St. John’s University in New York City where he teaches constitutional law, legal history, and is the Jackson Center’s Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow.
He discovered, edited and introduced Justice Jackson’s That Man: An Insider’s Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which was published by Oxford University Press.
Barrett, a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School, has served as a law clerk for Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, an associate counsel in the office of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh (Iran/Contra), and Counselor to the Inspector General in the U.S. Department of Justice. Professor Barrett is writing a biography of Justice Jackson that will include the first inside account of his year (1945-46) away from the Supreme Court as the chief American prosecutor of the principal surviving Nazi leaders at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.
Major sponsors for the event include: Chautauqua Institution, the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency; Cummins Foundation of Cummins, Inc.; HSBC Bank USA, N.A.; Phillips Lytle; and the Supreme Court Historical Society.
Information on the Roundtable and other events organized by the Jackson Center in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court Case, Brown v. Board of Education II, is available by calling 483-6646, or by visiting the Web Site at www.roberthjackson.org.