Contact: Michael Green

Associate Director

Justice and Society Program, The Aspen Institute

(202) 736-2539 | [email protected]

Aspen Institute to Honor Sandra Day O’Connor with New Conversation Series

The inaugural Sandra Day O’Connor Conversation will feature

US Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan on July 10 in Aspen, CO

Washington, DC, March 6, 2017 — The Aspen Institute Justice and Society Program is proud to announce the creation of the Sandra Day O’Connor Conversation, a four-year series that will bring distinguished speakers to Aspen on the topics that the Justice cares so much about: educating our youth about their civic responsibilities; the need to protect our courts from interference with the fair and impartial exercise of their duties under the Constitution and statutory law; the need to share American norms of the rule of law with a world hungry to be free of kleptocracy and corruption; and the cultivation of talented young people, especially young women, in the law.   

“Since my retirement, I’ve been eager to share my conviction that civic education and judicial independence are essential to preserving our American values,” said Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the series. “I am delighted that the Aspen Institute’s Justice & Society Program shares my passion for these issues.”

The inaugural Sandra Day O’Connor Conversation will feature Associate Justice Elena Kagan of the Supreme Court of the United States. Justice O’Connor’s first US Supreme Court Law Clerk, Honorable Ruth M. McGregor, will introduce Justice Kagan.  Justice McGregor was herself a Justice of the Supreme Court of Arizona from 1998-2009 and served as its Chief Justice from 2005-2009.  Hon. Margaret Marshall, Senior Counsel at the law firm Choate, Hall & Stewart in Boston, and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, will interview Justice Kagan.

“Justice O’Connor is an inspiration to countless young people, especially young women, and has been a great friend of the Aspen Institute’s Justice & Society Program,” said Meryl Chertoff, Executive Director of The Aspen Institute Justice and Society Program. “We are excited to be able to present this event to celebrate her career and contributions, and honor her enduring legacy.”

The inaugural conversation with Justice Kagan will be held on July 10, 2017 at 6:00 PM MST at the Institute’s Aspen Meadows Campus in Aspen, CO. The event will be open to the public, and tickets will be made available through the Wheeler Opera House Box Office beginning in June.

The Aspen Institute is a nonpartisan forum for values-based leadership and the exchange of ideas. The Institute is based in Washington, DC and has campuses in Aspen, Colorado and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It also has offices in New York City and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.

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