Former Associate Justice to the Supreme Court John Paul Stevens will visit the University of Alabama Wednesday for a speech hosted by the Law School.
Stevens will be the tenth justice of the nation’s highest court to speak at the UA School of Law since 1996.
The 91-year-old Stevens was appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1975, and served on the bench until last year when he announced his retirement.
Stevens’ visit also coincides with the release of his memoir, “Five Chiefs,” which details his interactions and the relationships he had with five Supreme Court Chief Justices, from his time as a court clerk to Fred Vinson, to being the senior member of the court under John Roberts.
Los Angeles Times book critic Jim Newton describes “Five Chiefs” as being “laced with observations on the court’s architecture, traditions and even its seating arrangements, it is the collected ruminations of a man who has served his country in war and peace, across the decades.”
Stevens, always known in the court for his donning of a bow tie, was one of its more liberal members.
He sided with the liberal wing on issues like the controversial 2000 election recount case, Bush v. Gore, in which he lambasted the majority decision as being a “disenfranchisement of an unknown number of voters whose ballots reveal their intent – and are therefore legal votes under state law – but were for some reason rejected by ballot-counting machines.”
“Time will one day heal the wound to that confidence that will be inflicted by today’s decision,” Stevens said. “One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.”
Stevens sided with the majority in Gregg v. Georgia, which reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Stevens has since recanted his previous opinion saying, “I thought at the time that if the universe of defendants eligible for the death penalty is sufficiently narrow so that you can be confident that the defendant really merits that severe punishment, that the death penalty was appropriate. But, over the years, the Court constantly expanded the cases eligible for the death penalty, so that the underlying premise for my vote has disappeared, in a sense.”
Stevens is being hosted by the Albritton Fund, which was established as part of the Law School Foundation in 1973. The fund seeks to honor the legal legacy of the Albritton family of Andalusia, Ala. by paying for the lectures of Supreme Court Justices from the United States and around the world.
The family includes Edgar Thomas Albritton, who founded the oldest continuously operating law firm in Alabama in 1887 and current District Judge William Harold Albritton, III, among many others.
The event is open to the public, but seating is limited. Stevens will begin his lecture at 3:30 p.m. in the McMillan Lecture Hall in the law school complex. Doors open at 2:30 p.m. Bags, laptops, umbrellas and large jackets will not be allowed in the lecture hall.
