The Brandeis Medal is awarded to individuals whose lives reflect United States Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis' commitment to the ideals of individual liberty, concern for the disadvantaged and public service.
The medal is awarded by the University of Louisville's Louis D. Brandeis Society, and is given in tribute to Brandeis, a former U.S. Supreme Court justice from Louisville and the namesake university's law school.
Past recipients
1983: Harry Blackmun, Supreme Court Justice 1985: Charles M. Allen, Kentucky judge 1987: John Palmore, Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice 1991: Morris Dees, civil rights lawyer 1992: Sandra Day O'Connor, Supreme Court Justice 1995: Robert Morgenthau, District Attorney of New York County 1998: Stephen Bright, lawyer 1999: Abner Mikva, Congressman, judge, and legal scholar 2000: John Lewis, Congressman 2001: Samuel Dash, lawyer and professor 2002: Janet Reno, United States Attorney General 2003: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Justice 2004: Stephen Breyer, Supreme Court Justice 2005: Howard Baker, Senator 2008: Linda Greenhouse, Supreme Court journalist 2010: Melvin I. Urofsky, Brandeis biographer 2013: John Paul Stevens, Supreme Court Justice 2014: Eugene Robinson, journalist 2015: Arthur R. Miller, legal scholar 2016: Elena Kagan, Supreme Court Justice 2019: Bob Woodward, journalist 2023: Sherrilyn Ifill, lawyer 2025: Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court Justice
Other recipients include Senator Chris Dodd, Shirley Hufstedler, Archibald Cox, A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., and Charles Ogletree.
References