Chief Justice Roberts to Lecture at the Jackson Center

[The Jackson biographer John Q. Barrett, St. John’s Law, has sent out the following announcement over the Jackson List.]

On this Friday, May 17, 2013, the Chief Justice of the United States, John G. Roberts, Jr., will speak at the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York.

The Jackson Center of course honors and teaches the life and legacies of Justice Robert H. Jackson, a 20th century giant whose imprint on this century is significant and continues to grow. Among many accomplishments, Justice Jackson served on the Supreme Court of the United States for thirteen years. Following World War II, he was, at Nuremberg, the U.S. chief prosecutor of the principal Nazi war criminals.

Robert H. Jackson’s adult hometown was Jamestown, New York. In late 2000, visionary, generous Jamestown leaders committed themselves to founding the Robert H. Jackson Center. They acquired a building (which needed substantial work) and the Jackson Center began to host events (and to be renovated) in 2001.

In May 2003, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist formally dedicated the Robert H. Jackson Center. Fifty years earlier, William Rehnquist worked for Justice Jackson at the Supreme Court as one of his law clerks.

About twenty years before Chief Justice Rehnquist dedicated the Jackson Center, he employed John Roberts—a western New York State native—as one of his Supreme Court law clerks.  When the Jackson Center welcomes Chief Justice Roberts this Friday, it thus will host not only the leader of the high Court on which Justice Jackson served with great, enduring distinction, but also a person whose path and experiences connect to Jackson himself. (Chief Justice Roberts has long been a Jackson student and admirer.  You will find [here] a July 2005 post, “John Roberts and Justice Jackson.)

Chief Justice Roberts’s speech, to be delivered on May 17th at 10:00 a.m. from the Jackson Center’s front porch, will be attended by many, including students from area—Jacksonland—schools.