I had the wonderful good fortune to begin my legal career by clerking for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the Ninth Circuit some three decades ago. Judge Wallace has been an outstanding judge for well over forty years, and he’s also a remarkable man, so I’m very pleased that his alma mater, Boalt Hall (at UC Berkeley), is establishing a lecture series in his honor.
The inaugural lecture in the series will take place at Boalt Hall next Tuesday, January 26, and will be delivered by Judge Wallace himself on the topic “Religious Minorities: The Importance of Religious Freedom and Strong Judicial Administration.” In addition, Ninth Circuit judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain will moderate an all-star panel of commentators: Berkeley law professor Jesse Choper, Stanford law professor Michael McConnell, and University of California president emeritus (and longtime law professor) Mark Yudof.
I look forward to attending the event. RSVP here.
By the way, Judge Wallace was a runner-up for a Supreme Court nomination both in 1975 (when President Ford ended up picking John Paul Stevens to replace Justice Douglas) and in 1987 (when President Reagan selected Anthony M. Kennedy after the defeat of Robert Bork’s nomination). How much more faithful Supreme Court decisionmaking would be to the Constitution if Judge Wallace had been appointed either time.