HUNTINGTON — The next lecture in Marshall University's Amicus Curiae Lecture Series is scheduled for Nov. 12, where Judge David J. Barron will speak at the Brad D. Smith Foundation Hall.
Barron, a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, will present a lecture titled, "Waging War: When Congress and the Commander in Chief Clash."
Patricia Proctor, the director of the Simon Perry Center for Constitutional Democracy, said she is looking forward to Barron's lecture.
Patricia Proctor
| marshall.edu
"Barron will be talking on the subject of a book he has written and actually won a prestigious award—the William Colby Award in 2017," Proctor said in an interview with The West Virginia Record.
Proctor said Barron will talk about the country's earliest history up until now.
"There's always tension between Congress and the commander in chief about who has what rights and what authority during wartime," Proctor said. "His book is terrific. It has entertaining stories of George Washington all the way up to modern administrations and controversies over war."
Proctor said Barron will look at how the president can pursue his goals while still staying on the right side of Congress.
"He has had an incredible career and we are really looking forward to hearing him," Proctor said.
Proctor said Barron is in a very high position in the justice system.
"We're really looking forward to his lecture and I think many others are as well," Proctor said.
Proctor said Barron brings a deep knowledge of history and law, as well as personal experience at the highest levels of the judicial and executive branches, to his lecture.
Barron has been a judge on the appeals court since 2014, and previously worked as the S. William Green Professor at Harvard Law School, which he joined in 1999.
Barron also served in the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice from 1996 to 1999 and as acting head of the office from 2009 to 2010.
He was also previously a law clerk for Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The event is free and open to the public.