William O. Douglas Lecture Featuring Judge Jennifer Sung

About This Event

Eccentrics, Misfits, and Dissenters: Stories of the First Amendment

The William O. Douglas Lecture is an annual lecture put on by Gonzaga Law School and the Center for Civil and Human Rights at the Law School. This year's speaker is the Honorable Jennifer Sung of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Why does our constitution protect freedom of speech? Professor Thomas Emerson wrote, in a Columbia Law Review issue dedicated to Justice Douglas’ contribution to the law, that the Justice viewed the First Amendment not only as essential to the working of the democratic process and as performing a social function in maintaining a marketplace of ideas, but also as supplying the constitutional grounds for protecting each person in seeking to realize their individual potential. And Justice Douglas himself once said, “I think there has to be a great strengthening of opportunities for individual activity. Otherwise, we will produce no eccentrics. I do not know of any salvation for society except through eccentrics, misfits, dissenters, people who protest.” In honor of Justice Douglas’ broad vision of the First Amendment, Judge Sung will share some stories of individuals who have exercised the freedom to speak.

Event Details:

• Reception: 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
• Lecture: 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
• Open to all Gonzaga University affiliates and public
• No registration required
• Attendees can park without a pass in front of the law school after 5:00 p.m.
• Backpacks/bags will not be allowed in the courtroom during the lecture.

The Honorable Jennifer Sung was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit in 2021 by President Joe Biden. Previously, she sat on the
Oregon Employment Relations Board (2017-2021). Judge Sung had a civil
litigation practice in Portland at McKanna Bishop Joffe LLP, and in San Francisco,
at Altshuler Berzon LLP. She also completed a Skadden Fellowship at the Brennan
Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and served as a clerk for the Honorable
Betty Binns Fletcher of the Ninth Circuit. Judge Sung received her B.A. from
Oberlin College and her J.D. from Yale Law School.

About Justice William O. Douglas

Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas was the inaugural speaker and the namesake of the lecture series. Raised in Yakima, Justice Douglas was an icon of the Inland Northwest and an inspiration to the nation at large, from his days at the Securities and Exchange Commission, to his appointment as the second youngest and eventually the longest serving Justice on the Supreme Court. Justice Douglas famously championed libertarian values embodied in the First Amendment, writing eloquently and passionately that “the vitality of civil and political institutions in our society depends on free discussion” and “the way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas; the way to combat falsehoods is with truth."