Event Held Thursday at Town & Gown
By Gilien Silsby
The USC Gould School of Law is presenting the fifth annual “U.S. Supreme Court: A Preview,” featuring former U.S. Solicitor Generals Paul Clement and Walter Dellinger.
Organized by USC Gould Professor Rebecca Brown, who will serve on the panel with Clement and Dellinger, the program is co-sponsored by the student chapters of the American Constitution Society and Federalist Society.
Lee Epstein, a USC Provost Professor of Law and Political Science and holder of the Rader Family Trustee Chair in Law, will moderate the symposium, which will take place on Thursday, Oct. 4 at 4:30 p.m. at Town & Gown.
The panelists will discuss and debate the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court term and look at the dynamics of the John Roberts court. Clement, Dellinger and Brown will examine several cases on this year’s docket, including affirmative action and international human rights cases. In addition, some important cases likely to make their way to the Supreme Court during this term will be discussed, including the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry.
“We are very fortunate to have two of the most preeminent Supreme Court advocates in the country to discuss the term with us,” Brown said. “They will bring unparalleled expertise, from different perspectives, to provide special insight into the legal issues and dynamics that will shape the court’s decisions on these cases.”
Clement is a renowned expert on appellate matters and constitutional litigation. A partner at Bancroft PLLC in Washington, D.C., he was appointed by President George W. Bush to be the 43rd U.S. solicitor general, serving from 2005 to 2008. In 2011, Clement was hired by the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives to defend the Defense of Marriage Act. He also led the recent Supreme Court challenge on behalf of 26 states to overturn the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
Dellinger is an influential constitutional law scholar and a partner at O’Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C. He served as acting solicitor general for the Clinton Administration during the 1996-97 U.S. Supreme Court term, arguing nine cases before the Court. Since joining O’Melveny & Myers in 1998, Dellinger has argued a variety of cases before the court, including Heller v. District of Columbia, the landmark case involving the Second Amendment right to bear arms. He clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black.
Brown, the Newton Professor of Constitutional Law, is a constitutional theorist who focuses on judicial review and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. She has written influential scholarship on the role of equality as a central premise of constitutional design who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Epstein is a nationally renowned U.S. Supreme Court scholar who has done key research on judicial behavior, constitutional courts abroad and constitutional law. She has received 12 National Science Foundation grants for her work on law and legal institutions.
She is a prolific writer who has co-authored and authored more than 100 articles and essays, as well as 14 books, including The Supreme Court Compendium and the Choices Justices Make. Her most recent book, The Behavior of Federal Judges (co-authored with William Landes and Richard Posner) will be published by Harvard University Press in December .
To RSVP, email [email protected] or call (213) 740-3841.
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