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Judge Neomi Rao to Deliver Sumner Canary Lecture on "Textualism's Political Morality"

The lecture will be live in-person and webcast from the Case Western Reserve University School of Law on Thursday, March 3.

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On Thursday, March 3, the Honorable Neomi Rao will deliver the Sumner Canary Lecture on "Textualism's Political Morality" at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law. In this lecture, Judge Rao will focus on the political and moral foundations of the positive law and explore how textualism as a method of statutory interpretation reflects and incorporates these foundations. The event, at 4:30pm, will be live, in-person at the law school. It will also be webcast. 1-hour of CLE for in-person attendance is pending approval. Registration information is here.

Judge Rao currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She previously served as the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and has worked for both the White House Counsel's Office and Senate Judiciary Committee. She was also a tenured professor at the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School, where she founded the Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. She also clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court.

Judge Rao is the latest in a long line of distinguished jurists to have given the Sumner Canary Memorial lecture. Other recent lecturers have included Judge Don Willett, Neal Katyal, and then-judges Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. A full list of prior Canary lecturers (with links to video when available) is here.