Three high-profile, momentous cases are currently before the US Supreme Court -
Trump v. Hawaii: Should the administration’s so-called “travel ban” stand?
Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission: Is the First Amendment violated by a state nondiscrimination law that requires a baker opposed to gay marriage to design a wedding cake for a gay couple?
McCoy v. Louisiana: May a criminal defense attorney admit a client’s guilt over the client’s objection if the attorney believes doing so would save the client’s life?
What are the constitutional and legal issues raised? And what Jewish values underlie the legal questions at play?
Trump v. Hawaii challenges the Administration’s so-called “travel ban” denying entry to nationals of eight designated countries; Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission asks whether the First Amendment is violated by a state public accommodations law that requires a commercial baker opposed to gay marriage, to design a wedding cake for a gay couple; and McCoy v. Louisiana asks whether the Sixth Amendment permits a criminal defense attorney, over his client’s express objection, to tell the jury that his client is guilty, if doing so reflects the attorney’s best judgment about how to avoid a sentence of death.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Solicitor General of the United States from 1997 to 2001, Seth Waxman is considered by many to be the premier Supreme Court advocate of his generation. Earlier this year, he delivered his 80th oral argument in the Supreme Court. A graduate summa cum laude of Harvard College and of the Yale Law School, he is a partner at Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr and a member of the faculty at the Georgetown University Law Center. His clients range from financial institutions to consumer, industrial, and media companies; from death-row inmates to local, state, and national governments. Mr. Waxman devotes hundreds of hours each year to pro bono clients in cases involving religious liberty, discrimination, habeas corpus, individual rights, and criminal justice. He has long been involved in Jewish organizations.
ABOUT THE SEGAL MEMORIAL LECTURE
The annual Bernard G. Segal Memorial Lecture was established by JTS in honor of the late philanthropist and community leader. Mr. Segal was the first Jewish president of the American Bar Association and the first Jewish chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association.