Chief Justice William Rehnquist To Speak At Duke April 13

DURHAM, N.C. - William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States, will deliver a lecture at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 13, in Page Auditorium on Duke University's West Campus. Rehnquist's lecture is the first in a series of talks titled "Great Lives in the Law," sponsored by The Duke Program in Public Law. This series will feature distinguished jurists, attorneys general and other public officials whose insights about great figures in the law, and about their own lives, are intended to deepen the understanding of lawyers' role in society and to promote respect for law among law students, lawyers and the public. "Chief Justice Rehnquist's own three decades on the Supreme Court have themselves constituted a 'Life in the Law' richer, fuller and more consequential for the nation and for the Constitution than nearly any comparable period in the life of the nation itself, since the time of John Marshall," said Duke Law Professor William Van Alstyne. "There could be no more appropriate figure than he to inaugurate this new series of public lectures at Duke Law School. We are extraordinarily fortunate to have him." Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has accepted an invitation to visit Duke as part of this series in April 2003, and Justice Anthony Kennedy is expected to visit the Duke Law School this fall. Tickets for Saturday's lecture in Page Auditorium have been already distributed, but a simultaneous broadcast of the lecture will be shown in the Griffith Film Theater in the Bryan Center; the broadcast is free and open to the public.

Note to editors: Media who want to cover Chief Justice Rehnquist's speech should contact Diana Nelson by Wednesday, April 10.