Michael W. McConnell traveled to the University of Chicago Law School to accept the 2015 Lee Liberman Otis Award for Distinguished Service from the Federalist Society on October 7. The award recognizes alumni of Chicago Law School who have shown dedication to public service and a commitment to the ideals of the Federalist Society: individual liberty, traditional values and the rule of law.

McConnell is the Richard and Frances Mallery Professor of Law and director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, as well as a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is a leading authority on freedom of speech and religion, the relation of individual rights to government structure, originalism, and various other aspects of constitutional history and constitutional law.