2009 Leadership Award

Judge Michael W. McConnell
of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

The Center for Public Justice presented its 2009 Leadership Award to Judge Michael W. McConnell in Chicago on April 30, 2009. McConnell is a constitutional law scholar and a leading authority on the Constitution's First Amendment.

The Center chose Judge McConnell for his service as a judge, and particularly for his legal writings and arguments in support of religious freedom in public life, including equal treatment for the choice of religious schools. The author of many law-journal essays on these and other subjects, Judge McConnell is a co-editor of the book Christian Perspectives on the Law (Yale University Press, 2001).

Judge McConnell has served on the Court of Appeals since 2002. He was short-listed for consideration by President George W. Bush for a U.S. Supreme Court Appointment and has argued cases before the Supreme Court.

A highly regarded law professor, McConnell continues to serve as a professor of law at the University of Utah College of Law. He also teaches courses at Harvard Law School, where he was a visiting professor in 2006. From 1985-96 he was a professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School.