In 2012, the Constitutional Law Center introduced a new lecture series which will feature prominent experts on the topic of the Iowa Constitution.  The inaugural lecture of the Iowa Constitution Lecture Series was held on March 8, 2012. 

Friday, April 5, 2013
Sanford V. Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair, University of Texas School of Law
Professor of Government, University of Texas at Austin

"More Alike Than Different?:  A Comparison of the U.S. and Iowa Constitutions"
4 p.m. - Drake Legal Clinic

Sanford Levinson teaches law and government at the University of Texas at Austin.  He has also been a frequent visitor at the Harvard and Yale law schools, as well as a variety of law schools abroad.  He is the author of many articles and books on various facets of American constitutional law, including Constitutional Faith (2d ed. 2011), Our Undemocratic Constitution:  Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) (2006) and, most recently, Framed:  America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance (2012).  He is also a regular contributor to the popular blog Balkinization.  He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001 and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association in 2010.

*This program is approved for one credit hour of Iowa CLE. 


Thursday, March 8, 2012
The Honorable Mark S. Cady, Chief Justice, Iowa Supreme Court

“A Pioneer’s Constitution: How Iowa’s Constitutional History Uniquely Shapes Our Pioneering Tradition in Recognizing Civil Rights and Civil Liberties”
4 pm, Drake Law School - Cartwright Hall, Room 213

Chief Justice Mark S. Cady was appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court in 1998 and was named Chief Justice in 2011. He was born in Rapid City, South Dakota. Chief Justice Cady earned both his undergraduate and law degrees from Drake University. After graduating from law school in 1978, he served as a judicial law clerk for the Second Judicial District for one year. He was then appointed as an assistant Webster County attorney and practiced with a law firm in Fort Dodge. Cady was appointed a district associate judge in 1983 and a district court judge in 1986. In 1994, he was appointed to the Iowa Court of Appeals. He was elected chief judge of the Court of Appeals in 1997.

Chief Justice Cady is a member of the Order of Coif (honorary), Iowa State Bar Association, Iowa Judges Association, and Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers (honorary). He is the Iowa chair of iCivics Inc. He also served as chair of the Iowa Supreme Court Task Force on the Court's and Communities' Response to Domestic Abuse and the Drake Law School Board of Counselors. Chief Justice Cady is the coauthor of Iowa Practice: Lawyer and Judicial Ethics (Thomson-West 2007). He is also the coauthor of Preserving the Delicate Balance Between Judicial Accountability and Independence: Merit Selection in the Post-White World, 16 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 101 (2008), and the author of Curbing Litigation Abuse and Misuse: A Judicial Approach, 36 Drake L. Rev. 481 (1987).

Chief Justice Cady is an adjunct faculty member at Buena Vista University and serves on the President's Advisory Council.

*This program is approved for one credit hour of Iowa and Federal CLE.  This event is free and open to the public.