Three Supreme Court Justices down, six to go.

Justice Samuel Alito will give the Creighton University School of Law’s fourth annual Koley Address at the Annual Dinner at 8:30 p.m. Friday in the Harper Center Ballroom.

Tricia Sharrar, associate vice president for academic affairs, said it was Justice Clarence Thomas who put the law school in touch with Alito. Thomas most recently visited Creighton in February 2007.

“He made the initial contact and we followed up with personal contact with his office,” Sharrar said. “It’s been a two-year planning process.”

Alito is the third Supreme Court Justice to come to Creighton. Thomas visits Creighton every other year and Justice Anthony Kennedy came to campus in 2001.

“The opportunity to have any Justice is a huge opportunity,” Sharrar said.

“The hope is to gradually make our way down the line and invite all of them to attend something at Creighton.”

The Koley Address is named for James L. Koley, an Omaha attorney and 1954 Creighton School of Law graduate, who represented the Nebraska Press Association in Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart, a case that pitted the press’s First Amendment rights against a defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights.

Because of this, the address is funded by The Omaha World-Herald and John Gottschalk, former chief executive officer of the paper, and deals with First Amendment rights.

Normally, the address is called the Koley Lecture and does not usually take place during the Annual Dinner. However, Sharrar said, because Alito’s visit coincides with the Annual Dinner, he will speak at the event and it will be called the Koley Address. Sharrar said it is a great opportunity and appropriate to hear about Constitutional rights from a Supreme Court Justice.

“To sit on the Supreme Court of the United States, it doesn’t get much better than that. To hear them talk about the Court and the issues that may surface is amazing.

“I’m just grateful that Justice Alito is attending to share his time with us — and the opportunity for us to hear about life on the Supreme Court.”

Law School Dean Eric Chiappinelli agreed, saying he thinks the university can learn a lot from Alito.

“I’m hopeful that people will learn a bit about how the Court sees its role in American life and about some of the more important cases it decided from the last Term,” he said. “I think he’ll bring to the law school a sense that we’re connected to the larger enterprise of doing justice in this country.”

The address is only for law school alums and friends, but there will be a live feed from the ballroom to the Hixson-Lied Auditorium on the second floor of the Harper Center. The live feed is open to all students, faculty and staff. Those wishing to attend should arrive by 8 p.m. with the program scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m.

Sharrar said Alito’s coming to campus wouldn’t be possible without prior relationships. Patrick Borchers, vice president of academic affairs, clerked for Kennedy before he worked at Creighton and law school professor Michael Fenner knew Thomas’s wife when she was a student at Creighton’s School of Law. He also worked with Thomas before Thomas was a Supreme Court Justice.

“Creighton University is about relationships and the reason that we are able to host these Justices is exactly that, because of the relationships that we develop,” Sharrar said.

“I hope everyone in the Creighton community with an interest in justice and in how the law really works will attend the live feed of Justice Alito’s talk,” Chiappinelli said.

Check creightonian.com throughout the week for updates on Alito’s address.