January 22, 2002

Contact: Karen Cooper, law school, (785) 864-4531.

Former U.S. solicitor general to discuss Ruby Ridge in speech at KU law school

Editor's note: Media are invited to attend.

LAWRENCE -- Seth Waxman, former solicitor general of the United States under President Bill Clinton, will speak about "Federalism, Law Enforcement and the Supremacy Clause -- the Strange Case of Ruby Ridge" next week at the University of Kansas law school.

Waxman's lecture, part of the Stephenson Lectures in Law and Government series, will be at 3:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28, in 107 Green Hall. The public and media are welcome to attend.

The U.S. solicitor general oversees government litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court. The federal government is involved in about two-thirds of all the cases of which the court decides the merits each year.

Waxman, solicitor general from 1997 to 2001, studied law at Yale Law School and went on to private practice after serving as a law clerk. He has received recognition for his pro bono work including the American Bar Association's Pro Bono Publico award and the Anti-Defamation League's Benjamin J. Cardozo Certificate of Merit. He is now an attorney for the law offices of Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering.

The Ruby Ridge case began in 1992 when federal agents attempted to arrest white supremacist Randy Weaver on weapons charges at his rural mountain home in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. An agent and Weaver's 14-year-old son were killed in a shootout. The next day, a federal sniper killed Weaver's wife while she was holding the couple's 10-month-old baby. Randy Weaver was later apprehended.

Weaver was acquitted of all charges except those relating to bail jumping. He and the government later settled the civil suit, with the government paying him and his family $3.1 million. The siege led to national debate and congressional investigations.