Brennan: The Irish Catholic
Republican Supreme Court Justice
Monday, April 25th 2011 at 7pm
Glucksman Ireland House NYU
President Eisenhower summoned New Jersey judge and first generation Irish American William Brennan Jr. to Washington in September 1956. Brennan was dumbfounded when he was told that he was a nominee for the Supreme Court.
Authors of the recent biography Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion Seth Stern and Stephen Wermiel note that he is still invoked as the sort of passionate, persuasive liberal people want on the court. Brennan was the son of Roscommon immigrants; his father worked as a union activist and Newark Democratic politician, serving as Newark’s Commissioner of Public Safety at the time of his death in 1930.
Justice Brennan makes public for the first time Brennan’s case histories, in which he recorded the strategizing behind major battles of the past half century, including abortion, affirmative action, the death penalty, obscenity law, and the constitutional right to privacy.
This talk will feature co-author Seth Stern. Stern, a Harvard Law School graduate, has been a reporter for Congressional Quarterly since 2004.
Event is co-sponsored with the Irish American Bar Association of New York. Established in 1986, the Irish American Bar Association of New York is a professional organization dedicated to connecting, serving and celebrating New York's legal professionals who are Irish born, of Irish heritage or simply interested in things Irish. Please check the IABANY website at www.iabany.org and if you not a current member and would like to join, please submit an application form from http://www.iabany.org/join.html.
Introduction: Domhnall O'Cathain, President of the Irish American Bar Association of New York