OXFORD,
Miss. – A nationally recognized attorney speaks Monday (March 9) at the
University of Mississippi about the fallout that resulted from his
motion asking U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to recuse
himself from a case involving then-Vice President Dick Cheney.
Alan
B. Morrison, a visiting professor at American University’s Washington
College of Law, plans to discuss “Merits Aside – Some Interesting
Questions About How the Supreme Court Functions” at 4 p.m. at the Lamar
Law Center’s William N. Etheridge Jr. Moot Court Room.
The presentation is free and open to the public.
Morrison’s
motion of recusal in the Cheney case was based on a duck hunting trip
taken by Scalia, Cheney and others. The trip came three weeks after the
Supreme Court agreed to hear a case over whether the White House could
be compelled to turn over documents related to an energy task force
headed by Cheney.
The motion made national news in 2004 after Scalia refused to recuse himself, citing legal precedent and concluding that friendship alone did not raise questions about fairness or impartiality. In a 21- page document, Scalia also said that he was not alone with Cheney during the trip and that they did not discuss the case.
Morrison has gained national recognition for his victories in a number of landmark Supreme Court cases including a case that gave lawyers a First Amendment right to advertise and another case in which antitrust laws were applied to minimum fee schedules established by lawyers.
“Indicative of his national reputation is the fact he was the initial attorney selected by the District of Columbia to represent its interest in the landmark Second Amendment gun decision handed down last term,” said UM law professor George Cochran. “I would say that if you took a national poll with respect to Supreme Court advocates, Alan would easily rank among the top 1 or 2 percent.”
Law Dean Samuel M. Davis said, “The vast majority of lawyers never get to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Alan Morrison has argued 20, including victories in some landmark decisions. We are pleased to have him speak here and look forward to hearing his perspectives on practice before the Court.”
Morrison, who also serves as special counsel for the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, earned his undergraduate degree from Yale and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. He is co-founder of the Public Citizen Litigation Group and has served as a lecturer at Stanford Law School and Harvard Law School. He has held lecture titles at Georgetown Law Center, University of Richmond Law School, University of Maine School of Law and University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School. He has edited numerous books and authored dozens of law review articles.
For more information on the UM School of Law, visit http://www.law.olemiss.edu . For assistance related to a disability, call 662-915-7361.