The Independence of the Courts

April 28, 2007

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Introduction

Richard S. Dunn (2 min.) is Co-Executive Officer of the American Philosophical Society. Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania from 1957 to 1996, he founded the Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies, now the McNeil Center for Early American Studies. His works on American, Caribbean, and European history include Puritans and Yankees; Sugar and Slaves; The Age of Religious Wars; The Papers of William Penn (with Mary Maples Dunn); and The Journal of John Winthrop. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Chair

Linda Greenhouse (6 min.) began covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times in 1978. She was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Journalism in 1998 for her coverage of the Court, and in 2004 received the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism from the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Becoming Justice Blackmun: Harry Blackmun’s Supreme Court Journey. A member of the American Philosophical Society, she is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a member of its Council.

Panelists

Sandra Day O’Connor (17 min.) was named to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and served until January 31, 2006. A graduate of Stanford University and its law school, she began her public career as an assistant attorney general in Arizona. She spent six years in the Arizona State Senate, including two as majority leader–the first woman in the country to hold such a high legislative position. She then won election to the Maricopa County Superior Court and was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. Her books include a memoir, Lazy B, and The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice. She is Chancellor of the College of William and Mary and founder of the new Sandra Day O’Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary at Georgetown University Law Center. She is a member of the American Philosophical Society and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Judith S. Kaye (14 min.) is Chief Judge of the State of New York and the first woman to occupy the state judiciary’s highest office. Admitted to the New York State Bar in 1963, she engaged in private practice in New York City until her appointment to the Court of Appeals. Author of numerous articles dealing with legal process, state constitutional law, women in law, and professional ethics, she is the recipient of the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession’s Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, the National Center for State Courts’ William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence, and New York University Law School’s Vanderbilt Medal. She is a member of the American Philosophical Society and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Charles G. Geyh (9 min.) is John F. Kimberling Professor of Law at Indiana University at Bloomington. His work on judicial independence, accountability, administration, and ethics has appeared in numerous publications and reports. He is the author of When Courts and Congress Collide: The Struggle for Control of America’s Judicial System, co-author of Judicial Conduct and Ethics, and co-reporter to the American Bar Association Joint Commission to Evaluate the Model Code of Judicial Conduct. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Justice at Stake and on the Steering Committee of the Constitution Project’s Courts Initiative. He is a two-time recipient of the Indiana University Trustees’ Teaching Award.