CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–September 14, 2015. Roosevelt University will present a Constitution Day lecture, sponsored by the university’s Montesquieu Forum, on “The Magna Carta and the Idea of Due Process” by Diane Wood, chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh District on Thursday, Sept. 24 at 4:30 p.m. (Wood is pictured above in a photo by Randy Tunnell).
Wood will discuss how due process, a fundamental right under the Magna Carta, is being eroded. Her lecture, free and open to the public, will be held in the Sullivan Room on the second floor of Roosevelt, 430 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago.
“Judge Wood leads one of the country’s most prominent appellate courts,” said Stuart Warner, associate professor of philosophy at Roosevelt and director of Roosevelt’s Montesquieu Forum, which advances the study of the classical and European heritage that informed the American founding. “We look forward to hearing her views on a topic which is basic to our democracy.”
A liberal intellectual and the first woman to serve as chief judge in the Seventh Circuit, Wood reportedly was considered twice by President Barack Obama to be a Supreme Court Justice. She was appointed to the Court of Appeals in 1995 by President Bill Clinton.
On the bench, she is known for building consensus and rallying other judges around her positions. In an interview she said, “I took very seriously when I became a judge the idea of an independent judiciary. I think it means you call it as you see it. I tell people sometimes taking a principled position comes at a cost. And that’s not just in the judiciary.”
In addition to being a judge, Wood is a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago’s Law School where her research interests include antitrust, federal civil procedure and international trade and business. Before joining the Circuit Court, Wood was an assistant attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice, a member of a Washington, D.C. law firm and one of the first women to serve as a law clerk for a Supreme Court Justice.
She is a graduate of the University of Texas’ School of Law where she graduated with high honors. For more information about the lecture by Chief Judge Wood, contact Warner at [email protected] .
Source: www.roosevelt.edu
