Dawn Johnsen to present lecture Friday

Dawn Johnsen, IU Maurer School of Law professor, will present a speech Friday titled “Reflections on Reproductive Liberty and the Rule of Law.”

Johnsen, who currently serves as the Walter W. Foskett Professor of Law, will speak at noon Friday in  Maurer School Law School room 123. The event is free and open to the public.

This will be the professor’s first public lecture since she was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2009 to head the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel.
The event is free and open to the public.

The professor, who withdrew her bid for confirmation to the Department of Justice in 2010 following objections from several Republicans, will talk about issues ranging from reproductive liberties, the Bush administration’s torture memos and the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

“I’m looking forward to my first talk in a long time here at IU,” Johnsen said in a press release. “One of the worst parts of the confirmation process was not being able to live my life as I wished and talk about the things I wanted to talk about. For the last two years, all that was essentially put on hold. It’s time to move on.”


— Margaret Ely