By MATT CHANDLER
Buffalo Law Journal

Sen. Orrin Hatch is scheduled to speak on the Canisius College campus Monday evening.

The Utah Republican, the latest speaker in the Frank G. Raichle Lecture Series on Law in American Society, will deliver a speech titled "Umpire or Player: Judicial Power and Selection in the 21st Century."

A former attorney, Hatch brings 34 years as a U.S. senator to Canisius. The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Hatch has been referred to as "Mr. Constitution" and was once considered a likely nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Robert Klump, director of the Raichle Pre-Law Center at Canisius, said he expects a strong turnout for the address by the six-term senator.

"For a law professor who is well-known to us, we might get 150 people," he said. "With Senator Hatch, given that he is a more prominent individual and has been much in the news with the debate over health care, we would expect there to be greater attendance from people outside of the college."

While health care doesn't figure in the title of Hatch's address, Klump expects that questions about the reform law President Obama signed this week will come up when Hatch takes questions after his speech.

While Hatch has taken controversial stances on issues including same-sex marriage and immigration, Klump said that did not factor into the decision to bring the senator to Canisius.

"We consider who, given the issues that are currently hot, would be most likely to contribute to the purposes for which the lecture was formed: to bring prominent people in American law - judges, law professors, political figures - to campus," he said. "Typically, the issues that the speakers have addressed pertain to major constitutional matters."

Klump said the school is prepared for a degree of opposition to Hatch.

"This is a college, and one of the things we like to encourage is debate of controversial issues. And we anticipate with Hatch, as we have with other speakers in the past, that some people who come are not going to be happy to hear the message," he said. "We anticipate that and encourage it, in fact, as long as the questions and the discourse remain civil."

Lawyer Audrey Seeley, a 1998 graduate of Canisius who majored in political science, said she sees the Raichle lectures as invaluable to the students who attend.

"I found that those lectures were such a tremendous opportunity to gain a national perspective on the issues," said the Hurwitz & Fine PC member attorney. "It is such a great experience when you are taking a course to have somebody there like Orrin Hatch ...What a great opportunity for a student to be able to ask him a question about his views."

Hatch's talk will begin at 8:15 p.m., at Canisius' Montante Cultural Center, Main Street at Eastwood Street. The event is free and open to the public.

Hatching a plan
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, will give the Frank G. Raichle lecture at Canisius College's Montante Cultural Center Monday at 8:15 p.m.

• Age: 76
• Education: Brigham Young University, 1959; JD University of Pittsburgh, 1962
• Career: Senator since 1977; ranking Republican on Senate Judiciary Committee; ran for president in 2000; attorney in private practice, 1962-76
• On the death penalty: "Capital punishment is our society's recognition of the sanctity of human life."