This series brings together noted figures in the world of law – lawyers, professors, journalists, and activists – to join in dialogue about their lives in the law along with how their work bears on some of the most controversial issues of our time. Join us for a conversation with Peter S. Canellos, the author of The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America's Judicial Hero, and United States Circuit Judge Thomas Lee Ambro. Ronald Collins, a retired law professor and the Library’s first Distinguished Lecturer, hosts this series, which is meant for laypersons and specialists alike.

Spanning from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement and beyond, The Great Dissenter is a definitive, sweeping biography of an American hero who stood against all the forces of Gilded Age America to fight for civil rights and economic freedom: Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan.

Peter S. Canellos is an award-winning writer and former Editorial Page Editor of The Boston Globe and Executive Editor of Politico. He is the editor of the New York Times bestseller, Last Lion: The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy. Judge Thomas Ambro has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit for over 15 years. Prior to that, he was in private practice for 24 years at the law firm of Richards, Layton & Finger, focusing on bankruptcy and business law. He received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1975.

Ronald Collins is the former Harold S. Shefelman scholar at the University of Washington Law School. He served as a Supreme Court fellow for Chief Justice Warren Burger. He is the editor of the weekly blog First Amendment News and is on the editorial board of SCOTUSblog.  He is also the co-chair of The First Amendment Salons and the co-director of the History Book Festival. He is the author of some dozen books on everything from artificial intelligence and free speech to campaign finance law, and on individuals including Justice Holmes, Machiavelli, comedian Lenny Bruce, and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

We invite you to support the author by purchasing a copy of the book from our local independent bookstore, Browseabout Books, by clicking HERE. Call-in orders are accepted or you can stop by the store to purchase a copy. For store hours, please visit their website. Each copy purchased comes with a signed archival bookplate.

NOTE: this meeting is being conducted through Zoom. You MUST REGISTER to receive instructions for joining the meeting.

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Basic written instructions for using Zoom may be found here and a brief video tutorial may be found here. Closed captioning is available for all our sessions. Information on enabling closed captioning in Zoom may be found here.