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Few provisions of the Constitution generate as much controversy as the 2nd Amendment. This talk presents a review of the origins of the 2nd Amendment, the rationales for its creation, various interpretations of it and the central case law developed by the Supreme Court. 

David Gray Adler is President of The Alturas Institute, a non-profit organization created to promote the Constitution, gender equality, and civic education.  A recipient of teaching, writing and civic awards, Adler has lectured nationally and internationally, and published widely, on the Constitution, presidential power and the Bill of Rights. He is the author of six books, including, most recently, The War Power in an Age of Terrorism, as well as more than 100 scholarly articles in the leading journals of his field.  He is currently writing a book on the landmark Supreme Court decision in Reed v. Reed, which had its origins in Idaho and transformed the law for American women.  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will write a Forward to the book, the research and  writing of which is supported by a Research Fellowship from the Idaho Humanities Council.

Adler’s scholarly writings have been quoted by the U.S. Supreme Court, lower federal courts, the U.S. Attorney General, the White House Counsel, the Legal Adviser to the State Department, by Republicans and Democrats in both houses of Congress, as well as political scientists, historians and law professors. He has consulted with members of  Congress from both parties on a variety of constitutional issues, including impeachment, the war power and the termination of treaties. He has delivered more than 700 public lectures throughout Idaho, and writes Op-Ed pieces that run regularly in six newspapers across our state, and in papers across the country.

 Adler has taught courses on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Supreme Court at all three universities in Idaho.  He has held the Andrus Professorship at Boise State University, where he served as Director of The Andrus Center for Public Policy, and the McClure Professorship at the University of Idaho, where he was Director of the James and Louise McClure Center for Public Policy Research, and held a joint appointment in the College of Law and the Department of Political Science. Previously, he was Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Constitutional Studies at Idaho State University.  He remains a Lecturer at the University of Idaho College of Law. In 2010, he was the recipient of the Idaho Humanities Council’s Distinguished Humanities Award.

 A frequent commentator on state and national events, Adler’s lectures have aired on C-Span, and he has done interviews with reporters from the New York Times, Washington Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, National Review, The Nation Magazine, Mother Jones, Fox News, NPR, NBC, CNN and the BBC.  Adler has served as a member of the Board of Directors of various academic, corporate and civic organizations, and is a founding member of the City Club of Idaho Falls. He earned a B.A. from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Utah. 

In 1968, Congress passed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to, as President Johnson stated in signing the legislation, “preserve sections of selected rivers that possess outstanding conservation values. . . . An unspoiled river is a very rare thing in this Nation today.” Fifty years later, the National Wild and Scenic River System has grown to include 208 different rivers or segments totaling more than 12,734 miles. In Idaho, there are 891 miles of designated wild and scenic river segments, including portions of the Main Salmon, Owyhee, Jarbidge, Bruneau Rapid, and Snake rivers, among other stretches. Of the original 8 rives designated by the Act in 1968, two—the Middle Fork of the Clearwater (including the Lochsa and Selway rivers) and Middle Fork of the Salmon—were in Idaho. Idaho Senator Frank Church sponsored the legislation in Congress, and Idaho’s designated rivers have always been central to the origins, history, and current management issues of the overall National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

As the National System has grown and matured, the issues it faces have progressed in three discernable waves. First came issues concerning the establishment of the system and the addition of river segments into the system. Second were efforts to resolve competing concerns about the place of Wild and Scenic Rivers System components in the overall system of natural resource and public lands management, including the balancing and allocation of recreational and other uses on designated river segments. The third wave is an increasing emphasis on the protection of designated system segments and management to protect the outstandingly remarkable values for which the segment was designated, and which President Johnson referenced in signing the Act.

This presentation will trace the history leading to the passage of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, provide an overview of the three waves of implementation emphases for the System, highlight the System components and selected management issues in Idaho, and provide thoughts about the System’s future as it enters the next 50 years.

Murray Feldman is a partner with the Holland & Hart LLP law firm in Boise. He has worked on wild and scenic rivers research, conservation, and litigation for 35 years. He was the co-editor, together with The Community Library executive director Jenny Emery Davidson, of the 2016 Idaho Book of the Year, Idaho Wilderness Considered. His articles include “Learning to Manage Our National Wild and Scenic Rivers System” for the ABA’s Natural Resource & Environment magazine, and most recently “NEPA’s Scientific and Information Standards—Taking the Harder Look” in the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Journal. Murray received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall) School of Law, and his M.S. degree from the University of Idaho College of Natural Resources.

Patty Costello, PhD in Neuroscience and picture book author, presents an engaging and interactive lecture based on the latest psychological research on libraries and books as teaching tools for children. The first part of the lecture discusses how and why parents can create an enriched literacy environment. Other topics include a dialogue on the pros and cons of teaching kids about race and stereotypes followed by a lesson on implicit bias. The talk concludes with an overview on the future of children’s literature, and why an active imagination is an important component for raising your children to be citizens of a diverse world. A range of resources designed to empower parents in creating enriched literacy environments will also be provided. Ages 18 and up.

The world’s islands represent the greatest concentration of both biodiversity and species extinctions. Home to plants and animals that are often evolutionarily distinctive and highly vulnerable to non-native invasive species, islands present an incredible opportunity for highly impactful and successful conservation interventions. On islands, invasive species have been proven to be a leading cause of extinctions, and thus of biodiversity loss globally. Removing this threat, particularly invasive mammals, is one of the most critical interventions for saving threatened plants and animals and restoring island ecosystems, with remarkable recovery of native species worldwide. Island Conservation is an international, not-for-profit conservation organization with a mission of preventing extinctions by removing invasive species from islands. Join Dr. Nick Holmes, Director of Science for Island Conservation, to learn more about the incredible impact of restoring islands to save species. Learn more at www.islandconservation.org.

Nick’s career and passion focus on research program management and conservation ecology. He earned his PhD from the University of Tasmania, Australia, working with the Australian Antarctic Division to develop best-practice guidelines for managing human impacts to seabirds in the subantarctic. Prior to joining Island Conservation, Nick managed the Kaua‘i Endangered Seabird Recovery Project at the Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit, University of Hawai‘i, developing and implementing recovery actions for Newell’s Shearwaters, Hawai‘ian Petrels and Band-rumped Storm-petrels. He brings to Island Conservation more than ten years of experience in conservation biology, with research and management expertise in seabirds, population modeling, endangered species recovery, environmental impact assessment, human-wildlife interactions, and monitoring programs. His experience includes a strong focus on island conservation and ecology, including time spent living and working on islands in the subantarctic, Antarctica, Hawai‘i, and Australia. His professional goal is facilitating practical conservation outcomes based on sound science.