RICHLAND — “Law in the Service of Evil: How Southern Lawyers and Judges Defended Slavery” is the topic of a lunchtime lecture at 12 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28, at WSU Tri-Cities.
Admission is free and open to the public. It is in the East Auditorium at 2710 University Drive, Richland.
The speaker is Paul Finkelman, a distinguished historian and a specialist in American legal history, race and the law — especially regarding slavery, constitutional law and baseball. He is the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy at Albany Law School in Albany, NY.
Finkelman has written more than 20 books and 100 scholarly articles. He was a Fellow in Law and the Humanities at Harvard Law School and received his doctoral and master’s degree from the University of Chicago.
Finkelman was the chief expert witness in the Alabama Ten Commandments monument case, and his scholarship on religious monuments in public space was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in Van Orden v. Perry (2005). He was also a key witness in the suit over who owned Barry Bonds’ 73rd home run ball.
The lecture is part of the Spring 2009 Liberal Arts season of events. To get to the WSU Tri-Cities East Auditorium, drive north on George Washington Way, immediately past Hanford High turn right on Sprout Road, follow Sprout to the end, then turn left into campus.
