Supreme Court Celebration Keynote Speakers

2019—Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University

2018—Hilarie Bass, president of the American Bar Association

2017—The Hon. Solomon Oliver Jr., chief judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio

2016—Paulette Brown, president of the American Bar Association

2015—Earl F. "Marty" Martin, president-elect of Drake University

2014—Guy R. Cook, president of the Iowa State Bar Association

2013—The Hon. John A. Jarvey, chief district court judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa

2012—The Hon. Joel D. Novak, district court judge, Fifth District of Iowa

2011—William T. Robinson III, president-elect of the American Bar Association

2009—Stephen J. Rapp, ambassador-at-large, Office of Global Criminal Justice, U.S. Department of State

2008—Robert Grey Jr., president of the American Bar Association

2007—Tom Vilsack, governor of Iowa

2006—Justin Webb, chief Washington correspondent, BBC Radio

2005—Jan R. Schlichtmann, attorney and activist

2004—The Hon. Alex Kozinski, chief judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

2003—John Kerry, U.S. Senator, Massachusetts

2002—Tom Harkin, U.S. Senator, Iowa

2001—John Edwards, U.S. Senator, North Carolina

2000—The Hon. Arthur A. McGivern, chief justice, Iowa Supreme Court

1999—The Hon. Richard Matsch, chief judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado

1998—J. Robert Kerrey, U.S. Senator, Nebraska

1997—Janet Napolitano, U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona

1996—James A. Leach, U.S. Representative, Iowa

1995—Roberta Cooper Ramo, president-elect of the American Bar Association

1994—Janet Reno, U.S. attorney general

1993—The Hon. A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit

1992—Michael G. Gartner, president of NBC News

1991—Richard Thornburgh, U.S. attorney general

1990—Patricia Schroeder, U.S. Representative, Colorado

1989—William S. Sessions, director of the FBI

1988—James McElhaney, Joseph C. Hostetler Professor of Trial Advocacy at Case Western Reserve University Law School

1987—Dale L. Bumpers, U.S. Senator, Arkansas

1986—Irving Younger, Marvin J. Sonosky Professor of Law at University of Minnesota Law School

1985—The Hon. Sandra Day O’Connor, justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

1984—Donald Kaul, columnist for The Des Moines Tribune

1983—Robert E. White, U.S. ambassador to El Salvador

1982—Charles Percy, U.S. Senator, Illinois

1981—F. Lee Bailey, nationally renowned trial attorney

1980—William Webster, director of the FBI

1979—William Proxmire, U.S. Senator, Wisconsin

1978—Gerald Gunther, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Stanford University Law School

1977—William Colby, director of the CIA

1976—Chesterfield H. Smith, president of the American Bar Association

1975—Charles Kuralt, CBS news correspondent

1974—Elliott Richardson, U.S. secretary of defense and former U.S. attorney general

1972—Mark Hatfield, U.S. Senator, Washington

1968—The Hon. Charles S. Desmond, chief judge, New York Court of Appeals

1967—Emile T. Berman, defense attorney

1966—Percy Mossle, defense attorney

1965—Thomas S. Lambert Jr., prosecution counsel at the Nuremberg Trials

1964—Bert H. Early, executive director of the American Bar Association

1963—Sylvester C. Smith, president of the American Bar Association

1960—The Hon. Thomas Clark, justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and former U.S. attorney general

1958—William B. Lockhart, dean of the University of Minnesota

1952—Howard L. Barkdull, president of the American Bar Association

1951—Albert J. Harno, University of Illinois Law School

1950—Luther Hill, The Des Moines Register and Tribune publisher

1949—Frank E. Homan, president of the American Bar Association

1948—The Hon. Maynard E. Pirsig, justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court and professor at the University of Minnesota

1947—Wayne Morse, U.S. Senator, Oregon

1941—The Hon. Charles F. Wennerstrum, justice of the Iowa Supreme Court

1940—Harley Stipp, president of the Iowa State Bar Association

1916—The Hon. William H. McHenry, judge