Friday, May 13, 2011

Justice

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At today's graduation ceremonies for the Northwestern University School of Law,  the guest of honor addressing his newly minted fellow alumni will be the Hon. John Paul Stevens '47, former associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Justice Stevens served in World War II as a Navy codebreaker in Hawaii before graduating in 1947, magna cum laude, from Northwestern Law. He served as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1970 through 1975. Nominated to the Supreme Court by President Gerald Ford, he took his seat on that court on December 19, 1975. After 35 years of service under three Chief Justices, Justice Stevens retired in June 2010 as the third-longest-serving justice in the Supreme Court’s history.

Yesterday afternoon at the law school, Justice Stevens appeared at a question-and-answer session conducted by two fellow alums, one a frequent advocate before the high court and the other his recent law clerk. He also took questions from members of the law school community.

A current law student asked, "Justice Stevens, did you ever wish you could go back and rewrite one of your majority opinions? Like in the years afterward, when you see how your case was applied by other courts, did you ever wish you could have a chance to change something?"

Justice Stevens replied, "No."

1 comment:

Elaine said...

So-- I take it you are a fan?
:0)