U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia will headline the first of three Winthrop Paul Rockefeller Distinguished Lecture Series presentations in Fort Smith, U.S. Marshals Museum officials announced Monday.
The lecture is scheduled for 1 p.m. Feb. 26 at the ArcBest Performing Arts Center in the Fort Smith Convention Center.
The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and reservations are required. Seating can be reserved at RSVP@usmarshalsmuseum.com.
U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson of the Eastern District of Virginia will introduce Scalia. Hudson is a former director of the U.S. Marshals Service under President George H.W. Bush.
Scalia has been an associate justice for the U.S. Supreme Court for more than 27 years, making him the court’s longest serving justice. He served in both the Nixon and Ford administrations before joining the American Enterprise Institute and holding a teaching post at the University of Chicago Law School.
President Reagan appointed Scalia to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1982. Four years later, Reagan appointed him and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Museum officials announced the lecture series in March. It is funded by a $100,000 grant from Lisenne Rockefeller, wife of the late Lt. Gov. Winthrop Paul Rockefeller.
The three-year lecture series will welcome leaders from the executive, judiciary and legislative parts of the U.S. government to speak about the marshals’ history as it relates to each branch.
“My husband would have been pleased to know that Justice Scalia will launch the inaugural presentation of this national lecture series named in his honor,” Lisenne Rockefeller said in a news release. “I look forward to having Justice Scalia in Arkansas to highlight the interwoven history of the judiciary branch and the U.S. Marshals Service.”
Officials broke ground on the $50 million, 20,000-SF U.S. Marshals Museum in September. The museum will sit on the banks of the Arkansas River near downtown Fort Smith. It will chronicle the more than 200-year history of the Mashals service.
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