The Sumner Canary Memorial lecture was established to honor the memory of the late Judge Sumner Canary, a pillar of the Cleveland legal community. Judge Canary served on the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Eighth District and as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. In addition to his public service, Judge Canary was a partner at the firms of Canary & Walsh and Arter & Hadden.
This lectureship, which was made possible due to the generosity of Judge Canary’s widow, Nancy Canary, has featured numerous federal judges, scholars, academics and six U.S. Supreme Court Justices.
2024-2025
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar
Sept. 4, 2024
2023-2024
Amul R. Thapar
Sept. 18, 2023
2022-2023
The Honorable Kevin C. Newsom, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Oct. 26, 2022
2021-2022
The Honorable Neomi Rao, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
March 3, 2022
2021-2022
The Honorable Don Willett, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Sept. 9, 2021
2019-20
The Honorable Amy Coney Barrett, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Sept. 19, 2019
Published remarks (PDF)
2018-19
The Honorable Joan Larsen, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Sept. 25, 2018
2017-18
The Honorable Diane Sykes, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
March 7, 2018
2016-17
Neal Katyal, Paul Saunders Professor, Georgetown University Law Center
September 14, 2016
The community, the faculty, the vast alumni network -- these features and more help foreign lawyers enrolled in our LLM Program achieve their dream careers.
2015-16
The Honorable Neil Gorsuch, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
April 7, 2016
2014-15
The Honorable William Pryor, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
October 2, 2014
2013-14
The Honorable Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
October 1, 2013
2012-13
Randy Barnett, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory, Georgetown University Law Center
September 27, 2012
2011-12
October 17, 2011
2009-10
Professor Jack Goldsmith, Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
March 23, 2010
2008-09
The Honorable Michael McConnell, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
October 15, 2008
2006-07
Saul Levmore, Dean, University of Chicago Law School
April 17, 2007
Published remarks
2004-05
The Honorable Guido Calabresi, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Thoughts on Equality in the American Constitution
April 6, 2005
2002-03
The Honorable Jose Cabranes, U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
University Governance in the Enron Era
April, 8 2003
2001-02
Charles J. Ogletree, Jesse Climenko Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Why Reparations? Why Now?
April 10, 2002
2000-01
The Honorable Ralph K. Winter, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
The Constitutionality of Campaign Finance Reform
April 3, 2001
1999-00
The Honorable Louis H. Pollak, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Judging Under the Aegis of the Third Article
April 5, 2000
1998-99
Geoffrey C. Hazard, Trustee Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Under Shelter of Confidentiality
1997-98
Derek Bok, 300th Anniversary University Professor, Harvard University
Law School Admissions and the Fight over Racial Preferences
March 25, 1998
1997-98
Randall L. Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Race, Suspicion, and the Police
October 30, 1997
1994-95
Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law, New York Law School
Hate Speech and Pornography: Do We Have to Choose Between Freedom of Speech and Equality?
April 14, 1995
1994-95
The Honorable Alex Kozinski, U. S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit
Death: The Ultimate Run-On Sentence
October 20, 1994
1993-94
Nat Hentoff
The Continuing Wars Against Free Speech in America
March 9, 1994
1993-94
The Honorable William S. Sessions, Former Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
October 24, 1993
1992-93
Professor Catherine MacKinnon, University of Michigan
Pornography Left and Right
March 25, 1993
1991-92
The Honorable Kenneth Starr, Solicitor General of the United States
The Supreme Court and the Federal Judicial System
February 5, 1992
1990-91
The Honorable Patrick Higginbotham, U. S. Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit
Juries and the Death Penalty
October 24, 1990
1989-90
The Honorable Frank H. Easterbrook, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Presidential Review
February 7, 1990
1989-90
The Honorable Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
Assorted Canards of Contemporary Legal Analysis
October 24, 1989
1988-89
Benno C. Schmidt, President, Yale University
The Enigma of Mr. Justice Holmes
November 10, 1988
1988-89
The Honorable Jeane Kirkpatrick, Former Ambassador to the United Nations
October 31, 1988
1986-87
The Honorable Richard A. Posner, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Legal Formalism, Legal Realism, and the Interpretation of Statutes and the Constitution
October 15, 1986
1985-86
The Honorable Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States
We the People
February 17, 1986
1984-85
Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.
March 4, 1985
1984-85
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
Our Judicial Federalism
November 13, 1984
1983-84
Kingman Brewster
Does the Constitution Care about Coercive Use of Federal Funding?
October 6, 1983
1980-81
The Honorable Griffin Bell, Former Attorney General of the United States
Toward an Adequate Criminal Justice System
Bell had just been appointed by AG William French Smith to “co-chair a federal task force charged with determining what the federal government can do about fighting the rise in violent crime.”
April 7, 1981