Events

David F. Levi, director of the Bolch Judicial Institute, will be joined by former Massachusetts Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall for a discussion of Marshall's trailblazing life in the judiciary. Born and raised in South Africa, Chief Justice Marshall came to the U.S. for graduate school and was unable to return to South Africa because of her anti-apartheid advocacy. She took U.S. citizenship in 1978, attended Yale Law School, practiced law, and served as a vice president and general counsel at Harvard University before being appointed as an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in 1996. In 1999 she became the first woman to serve as Chief Justice of that court. Before her retirement in 2010, Marshall wrote hundreds of opinions, including the groundbreaking 2003 decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. This declared that the Massachusetts Constitution prohibits the state from denying same-sex couples access to civil marriage and made Massachusetts the first state to legalize gay marriage. Marshall's tenure as chief justice also was marked by her efforts to improve access to justice for all and to make the judiciary more transparent, efficient, and accountable. This event is part of Chief Justice Marshall's visit to Duke Law as the Spring 2020 Bolch Judicial Institute Distinguished Judge in Residence. Sponsored by the Bolch Judicial Institute. For more information, please contact Kristin Triebel at kristin.triebel@law.duke.edu.