Constitution Series: Equality And Justice For All
"A More Or Less Perfect Union"
Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg
United States Court of Appeals, DC Circuit
Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and served as its Chief Judge from 2001 to 2008. After receiving his B.S. from Cornell University in 1970, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1973, he clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the United States Supreme Court.
Judge Ginsburg is the author of Voices of Our Republic, the companion to the 2020 three-part PBS series, A More or Less Perfect Union, which delves into past, present, and future struggles for liberty through the lens of the US Constitution.
Voices of Our Republic features thoughts about the Constitution from personalities, dignitaries, and everyday heroes, including Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Jack Nicklaus, Ron Chernow, and many others. These figures help answer the question of why the Constitution is so important and how it can be applied to political discourse today. Each person emphasizes a different part of the Constitution―from the Bill of Rights to the 19th Amendment and beyond―and why those particular passages are important.
For 25 years Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg heard more than 100 cases annually as one of the top appellate judges in the nation. Judge Ginsburg is currently a Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, and a visiting professor at the University College London, Faculty of Laws. Previously, Judge Ginsburg was a professor at the Harvard Law School, Assistant United States Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. Concurrent with his service on the federal bench, Judge Ginsburg has taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the New York University School of Law.
Judge Ginsburg is the Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Global Antitrust Institute at the Antonin Scalia Law School. Known among corporate attorneys as a “giant in antitrust law,” Ginsburg has heard appeals in several of the landmark antitrust cases of our times, including U.S. v. Microsoft.
He also serves on the Advisory Boards of: Competition Policy International; the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy; the Journal of Competition Law and Economics; the Journal of Law, Economics and Policy; the Supreme Court Economic Review; the University of Chicago Law Review; The New York University Journal of Law and Liberty; and, at University College London, both the Center for Law, Economics and Society and the Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics.
Patricia Lee “Trish” Refo | Guest Moderator
Patricia Lee “Trish” Refo is president of the American Bar Association, the largest voluntary association of attorneys and legal professionals in the world. As a partner at Snell & Wilmer in Phoenix, Refo concentrates on complex commercial litigation and internal investigations. She chairs the firm’s Professional Liability Litigation Group.
From 2014 to 2016, Refo was the ABA’s second highest-ranking elected official as chair of its policymaking House of Delegates. She has also served as chair of the ABA’s largest practice group, the Section of Litigation, and as chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Membership, the American Jury Project, and the Association’s grassroots advocacy activity, ABA Day in Washington. Refo was also a member of the ABA Commission on Civic Education and the Separation of Powers.
Refo has served on the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence of the United States Judicial Conference, appointed by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and on the Arizona Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on Rules of Evidence. She is a member of the American Law Institute and its Litigation Advisory Panel and is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services & Education. Previously, Refo served as a director of the American Bar Endowment and as co-chair of the National Association of Women Lawyers Committee for the Evaluation of Supreme Court Nominees.
Among her awards and recognitions, Refo in 2007 was named to the National Law Journal’s list of The 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America. She received the President’s Award from the State Bar of Arizona and has been inducted into the Maricopa County Bar Association Hall of Fame. She received her B.A. with high honors and high distinction and her J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan.
With Appreciation
