Jackson Society Dinner Set For Monday
The Robert H. Jackson Center summer dinner honoring Robert H. Jackson Society members will be held Monday at the Jackson Center.
Geoffrey R. Stone, University of Chicago law professor and Supreme Court authority, and John Q. Barrett, St. John’s University law professor and Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow, will be featured guests and speakers.
The Jackson Society is comprised of donors who contribute $500 or more to the Jackson Center’s annual fund campaign for operating funds. Society members are treated to two major Jackson Center events a year. This is the second year that a summer dinner has been planned surrounding the anniversary of Justice Jackson’s July 26 closing address at the Nuremberg trial.
In February, an event featuring Sen. Christopher Dodd was held at the U.S. Supreme Court, where members heard Sen. Dodd speak and met him and other officials at a private reception.
‘‘Annual Fund donors are especially important to the Jackson Center, no matter what size the gift,’’ said Rolland E. Kidder, Jackson Center executive director. ‘‘Donors of all amounts will receive various forms of recognition and this is what we do for Jackson Society members.’’
Professor Stone will deliver Chautauqua Institution’s inaugural Robert H. Jackson lecture, according to Kidder, and then travel to the Jackson Center where Jackson Society donors will be entertained for dinner and time with Stone and Barrett. Sponsors underwriting Stone’s appearance include: Northwest Savings Bank, Arnie and Jill Bellowe, County of Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency, Marty and Sandy Coyle, Paul and Cheryl Fardink (Magic Carpets), Vic and Joan Gelb and Thomas B. Hagen.
‘‘Professor Geoffrey Stone is new to the Jackson Center,’’ Kidder said, ‘‘and will appear at 3:30 p.m. Monday, July 11, at the Chautauqua Institution Hall of Philosophy, thanks to special donors to the Center.’’
The impending retirement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor makes Stone’s appearance both at the Chautauqua Institution and the Jackson Center especially intriguing.
Stone is the Harry Kalven Jr. Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He previously served as Dean of the University of Chicago Law School from 1987 to 1993, Provost of the University of Chicago from 1993 to 2002, and as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. in 1972- 73.
‘‘For some time we have believed that a summer program at Chautauqua Institution could be an important new initiative,’’ said Gregory L. Peterson, Jackson Center president. ‘‘Because the Jackson Center honors the legacy of a renowned former Supreme Court Justice, it seemed especially appropriate that this program focus on the Supreme Court itself at the summertime conclusion of its annual term, in the immediate wake of its latest decisions and developments.’’
Stone is one of the nation’s premier constitutional law scholars and a leading expert on the Supreme Curt. His latest book, just published and already widely acclaimed, is Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism.
Barrett is the Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow of the Jackson Center and Professor of Law at St. John’s University in New York. He formerly served in the office of Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh investigating Iran-Contra, and in the U.S. Department of Justice. He discovered the handwritten manuscript of Robert H. Jackson’s book That Man among Jackson’s papers while researching a biography of the Justice. He edited and published That Man through Oxford University Press.
Persons interested in contributing to the Jackson Center Annual Fund as Jackson Society members prior to the July 11 dinner or in making gifts of any size to assist the Jackson Center should call the center at 483- 6646.