In response to a call by the Iowa Supreme Court’s Chief Justice and others for a greater focus on studying the Iowa Constitution, the Constitutional Law Center at Drake University Law School is pleased to announce a new program called the “Iowa Constitution Lecture Series.” The school will host lectures annually by prominent experts about the Iowa Constitution.
Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark S. Cady will present the inaugural lecture, “A Pioneer’s Constitution: How Iowa’s Constitutional History Uniquely Shapes Our Pioneering Tradition in Recognizing Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.” The event will be held on March 8, 4 p.m. at Drake University Law School’s Cartwright Hall, Room 213. It is free and open to the public.
Chief Justice Cady was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1998 and named Chief Justice in 2011. He earned both his undergraduate and law degrees from Drake University. After graduating from law school in 1978, he served as a judicial law clerk for the Second Judicial District for one year. He was then appointed as an assistant Webster County attorney and practiced with a law firm in Fort Dodge, IA. Cady was appointed a district associate judge in 1983 and a district court judge in 1986. In 1994, he was appointed to the Iowa Court of Appeals. He was elected chief judge of the Court of Appeals in 1997.
Chief Justice Cady is a member of the Order of Coif (honorary), Iowa State Bar Association, Iowa Judges Association, and Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers (honorary). He is the Iowa chair of iCivics Inc. He also served as chair of the Iowa Supreme Court Task Force on the Court’s and Communities’ Response to Domestic Abuse and the Drake Law School Board of Counselors. Chief Justice Cady is coauthor of Iowa Practice: Lawyer and Judicial Ethics (Thomson-West 2007). He is also coauthor of Preserving the Delicate Balance Between Judicial Accountability and Independence: Merit Selection in the Post-White World, 16 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 101 (2008), and the author of Curbing Litigation Abuse and Misuse: A Judicial Approach, 36 Drake L. Rev. 481 (1987).
Chief Justice Cady is an adjunct faculty member at Buena Vista University and serves on the President’s Advisory Council.