National Issues

Gardner was elected St. Louis Circuit Attorney in 2017, after serving as a Missouri House Representative from the 77th District. She received national attention last year for her role inpursuing the investigation into alleged unlawful activities by Missouri governor Eric Greitens, leading to his resignation.

Ferguson Councilman Wesley Bell’s recent upset of Robert McCulloch’s 28-year-run as St. Louis County Prosecutor was a stunning victory for the underdog running on a platform to reform its criminal justice system.

Throughout her long tenure in the Jackson County prosecutor’s office, Baker has served in nearly every unit. In 2012 she was elected as its leader.

A brief rundown of Adam Foss’s early years shows a trajectory that aligns with his choices as an adult: Born in Columbia and adopted by an Irish-American family from Massachusetts; experienced childhood as one of color in a small town; arrested at age 19 for marijuana possession but got off easy because his father was a white police officer; was a first-generation college student; took a class on restorative justice which inspired him to seek a law degree; interned at a small municipal court in an impoverished and dangerous Boston neighborhood.

Through his several books on the growth, preparation and consumption of food, Michael Pollan has shown us the way toward food enlightenment. Now with his 8th book, he is leading us on another enlightened journey, one that holds the promise of peace of mind for millions suffering from serious mental disorders such as PTSD.

The historian Crystal Feimster will deliver the annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture.

Norman Ornstein is an American Enterprise Institute scholar and keen observer of the American political system. In his last two books, co-authored with Thomas Mann, Ornstein takes us on a historical journey to identify the roots of decline in the quality of Congressional governance, illustrates how the “politics of extremism” was born and how its growth was allowed to continue unfettered for decades until it created the political environment ripe for producing a president like no other.

A former major in the United States Army Reserve (IRR) French was deployed to Iraq and served in Diyala Province as Squadron Judge Advocate for the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, where he was awarded the Bronze Star.

Washington University’s School of Law will host a visit by former Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, on Monday, Feb. 27 that includes an Assembly Series presentation at 3 p.m. in Graham Chapel.

Whenever some violent lunatic snaps and claims some kind of warped justification for his murderous acts as a so-called Muslim warrior, it’s not his damaged childhood or the flood of assault weapons in America or the climate of unrelenting violence in our country that gets blamed – it’s Islam, an ancient, Abrahamic religion.” -- Arsalan Iftikhar

Stevens objected to the court's ruling in the 2000 election-deciding case of Bush v. Gore. The court overturned the Florida Supreme Court's decision to order a recount of all of the state's ballots. Joined by David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, Stevens wrote that, "Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law. I respectfully dissent."

Jack Devine's talk,"The Importance and Ethics of National Intelligence," held on September 16, 2014, served as the annual Elliot Stein Lecture. During his 30-year tenure as the CIA's acting director of operations, Devine served as America's top spymaster for eight presidents.

On October 10, 2014 Carl Hart, neuropsychopharamacologist at Columbia University, delivered the annual Chancellor's Fellows Lecture on "Demystifying the Science of Drug Addiction: Neuroscience, Self-discovery, Race and U.S. Drug Policy."

On April 14, 2015 at 5 p.m. in Umrath Hall Lounge, veteran journalist Carla Power talked about "Reading the Quran at Starbucks: An American Secular Feminist and a Traditional Muslim Scholar Find Commonalities."

On November 14, 2013 at 12 p.m. in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom, Catharine MacKinnon, a principal architect of landmark sex equality laws in the United States, talked about "Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality."

In a career spanning four decades, campaign strategist David Axelrod has influenced the outcomes of more than 150 Democratic campaigns, many of which were considered landmark victories. But in 2008 he orchestrated his most historic campaign, helping elect the first African-American as the 44th president of the United States. His address, part of the SU Speaker Series sponsored by the Washington University Political Review, is titled "America’s Future: Insights from a Presidential Adviser."

As a sophomore at WashU, he served as Speaker of the Congress of the South 40. For the Assembly Series, he will share how his experiences as a student helped prepare him for a career in politics, then invite the audience to engage in a dialogue.

On October 4, 2013 at 6 p.m. in Brown Hall, Jonathan Gruber, Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist and renowned health care expert, talked about “Health-care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It Works.”

On February 3, 2015 at 6 p.m. in the Graham Chapel, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Residential Learning, Jill Stratton moderated a discussion on “Marriage Equality and the GOP” by a panel featuring Meghan McCain, Gregory T. Angelo and Fred Karger.

On February 29, 2012 James Boyle, the William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law and co-founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School talked about "Cultural Agoraphobia: Why Most of What You Know About the Internet is Wrong."