Queens University Jewish Studies presents
The Second Annual Sklut Lecture
Justice Mark A. Davis
Parallels Between the Torah and our Modern Legal System
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
6:00 pm- 7:00 pm
Ketner Auditorium
During the second week of February, when Jews across the world read the Torah portion called Yitro in which Moses’ father-in-law, Yitro, advised Moses to set up a system of upper courts and lowers court, Associate Justice Mark A. Davis of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, the first Jewish member of the court in its 200-year history, will be speaking about links between the Torah and our modern legal system. Justice Davis will discuss the compatibility between the First Amendment and the Ten Commandments. He will explain how the structure of our modern court system derives from the Torah and will explore how the process by which judges today analyze legal issues is based on Talmudic principles of interpretation.
Justice Mark A. Davis was appointed to the Supreme Court of North Carolina in March 2019. Prior to that, he served as an Associate Judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals for over six years. He worked as a Special Deputy Attorney General in the North Carolina Department of Justice for five years. He spent thirteen years as an attorney at Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice where he was a Member of the firm in the Litigation Section. He also served as General Counsel in the Office of the Governor for approximately two years. Justice Davis received his law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law and served on the North Carolina Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Upon graduation from law school, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Franklin T. Dupree, Jr. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Justice Davis has been active in the North Carolina Bar Association, serving as a Vice-President and as a member of the Appellate Rules Committee and the Bench-Bar Liaison Committee. In 2018, he received a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in Judicial Studies from the Duke University School of Law. He is also a recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. Justice Davis has given presentations at numerous Continuing Legal Education seminars in North Carolina on the subject of appellate advocacy. Justice Davis is the author of a book on the North Carolina Supreme Court titled A Warren Court of Our Own: The Exum Court and the Expansion of Individual Rights in North Carolina. He and his wife Marcia have been married since 1992 and have three children.
The lecture is generously sponsored by Hospice and Palliative Care Charlotte Region. Community partners include Havurat Tikvah, Temple Beth El, and Temple Israel. The program is free and open to the public and will be followed by a light dessert reception.
