Senator Russ Feingold spoke at the University of Wisconsin Law School on Friday, April 22, 2005, to present the seventeenth annual Thomas E. Fairchild Lecture. Feingold's topic was "Upholding an Oath to the Constitution: A Legislator's Responsibilities."

"When I was sworn in as a U.S. senator," Feingold told the attentive audience of approximately four hundred, "I took an oath to uphold the Constitution, but I never could have dreamed the ways in which that oath would challenge me and put me in conflict with people I admire."

Feingold recounted his experiences as the only Democrat to vote against dismissing the Clinton impeachment case before all evidence was heard, and the only senator to vote against the U.S. Patriot Act enacted in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

Answering multi-part questions from the audience after his lecture, he commented, "Now I really do feel as though I were back in law school."

The Fairchild Lectureship was established at the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1988, as a tribute to Judge Fairchild, a 1937 UW Law School graduate, former Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, later Chief Judge and now Senior Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Initiated by Judge Fairchild's clerks, the lectureship brings a distinguished member of the legal profession -- from the bench, bar or academia -- to speak on a topic of importance to the profession.

Submitted by on April 25, 2005

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