Friends Honor Justice John Paul Stevens with the 2011 Wickersham Award

The following is a guest post by Matthew Braun, Legal Reference Specialist.

The Friends of the Law Library of Congress honored retired Justice John Paul Stevens of the Supreme Court of the United States with the Friends’ 2011 Wickersham Award at a ceremony at the Library of Congress on Monday, June 13. The Wickersham Award is named after George W. Wickersham, who served as Attorney General of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and founded the Friends of Law Library of Congress in 1932.  The Wickersham Award was established in 1996 to recognize distinguished individuals who have made a significant contribution to the legal profession.

To further honor Justice Stevens, the Law Library has compiled two exhibits in the Law Library Reading Room that include photos of Justice Stevens at various periods of his life and highlight key books written about Justice Stevens’s personal and professional accomplishments.

Specifically, the exhibits include photos of Justice Stevens as a student and visiting alumnus at Northwestern University School of Law, a selection of memoranda that Justice Stevens wrote as a judicial clerk for Justice Wiley Rutledge of the U.S. Supreme Court during the 1947-48 Term, and the U.S. Senate hearing transcript for Justice Stevens’s own nomination to the Supreme Court in 1975.

The books exhibited include John Paul Stevens: An Independent Life, by Bill Barnhart and Gene Schlickman, and Illinois Justice: The Scandal of 1969 and the Rise of John Paul Stevens, by Kenneth A. Manaster (with a forward by Justice Stevens).

These items have originated from the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, the Northwestern University Archives and the Pritzker Legal Research Center at Northwestern University School of Law, and the Law Library’s own collections. A selection of this material will also be displayed at the Wickersham Award Ceremony on June 13.

Update: The event video was added below.