Justice Neil Gorsuch, left, and Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., walk down the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court after Gorsuch's investiture in January. Photo credit: Diego M. Radzinschi/ ALM

In a rare joint venture, six U.S. Supreme Court justices who graduated from Harvard Law School will return to the campus Thursday to join the law school's bicentennial celebration.

The six alums—Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch and retired Justice David Souter—will participate in a conversation with the law school's dean, John Manning, in Sanders Theatre.

The gathering this week will put on full display the Ivy League dominance on the current court. Indeed, the justices have faced criticism—and expressed their own concern—about the lack of law school diversity on the high court.

“I think we have to be concerned that almost all of us are from two law schools,” Justice Clarence Thomas said in 2014 at an event at Yale Law School, his alma mater. Justices Samuel Alito Jr. and Sonia Sotomayor are also Yale Law grads. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg graduated from Columbia Law School.

Speaking at Brooklyn Law School last year, Sotomayor had this to say: ”I, for one, do think there is a disadvantage from having (five) Catholics, three Jews, everyone from an Ivy League school.”

A number of programs during the two-day event will be live streamed for public viewing, but not the conversation with the Supreme Court justices.

Among the programs is a reargument Friday of the landmark 1803 case, Marbury v. Madison, that established the power of the federal judiciary to strike down unconstitutional acts of Congress. Harvard Law's Laurence Tribe and former Harvard Law professor and Stanford Law dean Kathleen Sullivan of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan will face off.

Four federal appellate judges—all Harvard Law grads—will judge the “new” Marbury v. Madison: Chief Judge Merrick Garland and Judge Patricia Millett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Judge Joseph Greenaway Jr. of the Third Circuit; and Judge Jane Kelly of the Eighth Circuit.

The theme of the bicentennial celebration is Harvard Law School in the World. Besides the Marbury v. Madison reargument, sessions will be held throughout Friday with more than 200 speakers on such topics as refugee law, advising the president, criminal justice reform and the role of general counsel.

Kim Rivera, general counsel to HP Inc. and a 1994 graduate of Harvard Law, is set to speak on a Friday panel that will confront: “What is the role of law schools in preparing in-house lawyers for the challenges they face in a world where they play critical C-Suite roles and their law departments are rapidly growing to unprecedented scale?”

Read more:

Justice Neil Gorsuch, left, and Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., walk down the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court after Gorsuch's investiture in January. Photo credit: Diego M. Radzinschi/ ALM

In a rare joint venture, six U.S. Supreme Court justices who graduated from Harvard Law School will return to the campus Thursday to join the law school's bicentennial celebration.

The six alums—Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch and retired Justice David Souter—will participate in a conversation with the law school's dean, John Manning, in Sanders Theatre.

The gathering this week will put on full display the Ivy League dominance on the current court. Indeed, the justices have faced criticism—and expressed their own concern—about the lack of law school diversity on the high court.

“I think we have to be concerned that almost all of us are from two law schools,” Justice Clarence Thomas said in 2014 at an event at Yale Law School, his alma mater. Justices Samuel Alito Jr. and Sonia Sotomayor are also Yale Law grads. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg graduated from Columbia Law School.

Speaking at Brooklyn Law School last year, Sotomayor had this to say: ”I, for one, do think there is a disadvantage from having (five) Catholics, three Jews, everyone from an Ivy League school.”

A number of programs during the two-day event will be live streamed for public viewing, but not the conversation with the Supreme Court justices.

Among the programs is a reargument Friday of the landmark 1803 case, Marbury v. Madison, that established the power of the federal judiciary to strike down unconstitutional acts of Congress. Harvard Law's Laurence Tribe and former Harvard Law professor and Stanford Law dean Kathleen Sullivan of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan will face off.

Four federal appellate judges—all Harvard Law grads—will judge the “new” Marbury v. Madison: Chief Judge Merrick Garland and Judge Patricia Millett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Judge Joseph Greenaway Jr. of the Third Circuit; and Judge Jane Kelly of the Eighth Circuit.

The theme of the bicentennial celebration is Harvard Law School in the World. Besides the Marbury v. Madison reargument, sessions will be held throughout Friday with more than 200 speakers on such topics as refugee law, advising the president, criminal justice reform and the role of general counsel.

Kim Rivera, general counsel to HP Inc. and a 1994 graduate of Harvard Law, is set to speak on a Friday panel that will confront: “What is the role of law schools in preparing in-house lawyers for the challenges they face in a world where they play critical C-Suite roles and their law departments are rapidly growing to unprecedented scale?”

Read more: