Appeals judge will visit class

M. Margaret McKeown will speak on statutory interpretation and IP law

-By Gilien Silsby

Judge M. Margaret McKeown will make a special visit to USC Law on Monday, Oct. 15, speaking on statutory interpretation and intellectual property law in Prof. Mathew McCubbins’ Statutory Interpretation class.

Prof. McCubbins is opening his class up to all USC Law students interested in hearing Judge McKeown speak. His class runs from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Monday in Room 12. Following the class, students and faculty are invited to a reception for Judge McKeown in the USC Law Faculty Lounge. Food and drinks will be served.

“We are honored and pleased to have Judge McKeown come to campus,” said McCubbins. “She is a great legal mind and I know students will benefit greatly from hearing her speak and getting to know her.”

Judge McKeown is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

She received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1975 and is an adjunct professor at the University of Washington Law School and at the University of San Diego School of Law. She is best known in academia for her work in intellectual property law.

The first female partner with the law firm of Perkins Coie in Seattle and Washington, D.C., Judge McKeown served in the White House under President Jimmy Carter. She was appointed to her current seat by President Bill Clinton in 1998.

Last month, Judge McKeown wrote a judgment which upheld a lower court ruling that banned display of the Sunrise Rock cross in the Mojave National Preserve. She ruled that the government cannot attempt to protect the cross by trading a parcel of land to a private party. it was an impermissible governmental endorsement of religion: the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution bars the government from favoring any one religion.