Thursday, April 23, 2009
Wed, 11 Jul 2007
Liberty University School of Law students were recently in the Nation’s Capital where they enjoyed a jammed-packed day that included a trip to the U.S. Supreme Court, a tour of the Court and the Capitol building, and a reception at the Supreme Court with Chief Justice John Roberts.
The law students attending the events are participating in either Liberty Counsel’s summer externship program or the summer Constitutional Law Clinic, which is a clinical program offered by the School of Law and Liberty Counsel. Accompanying the students and organizing the trip were Mathew Staver, Dean of the School of Law and Founder of Liberty Counsel; Anita Staver, President of Liberty Counsel; Rena Lindevaldsen, Assistant Professor of Law at the School of Law; Erik Stanley, Chief Counsel of Liberty Counsel; and David Corry, Senior Litigation Counsel of Liberty Counsel.
The law students had the rare opportunity to attend one of the final sessions of the High Court’s Term in which all nine Justices were seated for the oral delivery of five cases. Three of the five cases delivered by the Court dealt with student speech in public schools, a challenge against President Bush’s faith-based initiatives (which the Court turned away), and a free speech challenge to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law (in which the Court sided with Wisconsin Right to Life’s issue ads against the speech-restrictive law).
The students then attended a lecture by the Clerk of the Court and were taken on a special guided tour of the Court where they were able to see sections of the Court not accessible to the general public. The day continued with a tour of the Capitol building and was capped off with a private reception in the East Room of the Supreme Court with Chief Justice John Roberts.
Commenting on her experience, Jana Carter, a third-year law student, said: “It is such a blessing and a true gift to be afforded the many once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that Liberty Counsel gives us each summer. I will never forget the excitement of walking into the Supreme Court and thinking it couldn’t get any better, and then the Justices walked in, and I realized it just got better. Liberty Counsel has provided me with amazing opportunities two summers now and these are experiences that I know I wouldn’t be able to have anywhere else during law school. Thank you so much for helping to fulfill lifetime goals and for constantly providing us with opportunities of a lifetime.”
