The Historical Society participates in a program of annual lectures by jurists, historians and legal scholars. The focus of these lectures will primarily (but not exclusively) be the development of administrative law.
In 2018 the Historical Society sponsored two outstanding lectures. On September 12, Professor of Political Science at Dickinson College, James Hoefler, presented a lecture entitled “Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist Papers.” On November 13, Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University Akhil Reed Amar, presented a lecture on the topic “Who Judges the Judges” based on a chapter in his recent book The Constitution Today.
The first lecture was presented June 22, 2010, by Professor John Q. Barrett of St. John’s University School of Law on the legal career of United States Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson. The second lecture, June 7, 2011, was given by former Pennsylvania Governor Richard Thornburgh who reviewed the accomplishments during his tenure as governor from 1979 to 1987. The third lecture on June 5, 2012, was given by Dean Ken Gormley of Duquesne Law School on his highly-acclaimed book, The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr. The fourth program was on September 10, 2013, by Attorney Greg Harvey and Professor Michael Dimino on the significance of the 2010 United States Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The fifth program was on September 9, 2014, and was a joint lecture by Attorney Chuck Proctor and Professor Tom Place on the background to and significance of the 2014 United States Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby-Conestoga Wood cases. The sixth program was on September 14, 2015, and was on the timely topic of The Future of Regulation by Penn Law School professor Cary Coglianese. The seventh lecture was on February 9, 2016, by University of North Carolina Law School professor Michael J. Gerhardt on “How Presidential Legacies are Built (or Torn Down).” The eighth lecture was on May 2, 2017, by the president and CEO of the National Constitutional Center, Jeffrey Rosen, on “Louis Brandeis and the Curse of Bigness.”