The Heyburn Initiative is a national, non-partisan endeavor established in 2016 in honor of the late U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II. It was established to study and document the role of the Third Branch in our democracy.
Our mission is drawn from what inspired Judge Heyburn to leadership in the Federal Judiciary: "to ever improve the legal system considered the envy of the world."
Speaker & Conference Program
In partnership with the University of Kentucky College of Law, the Heyburn Initiative hosts a national lecture series with prominent speakers to engage students, judges, and others on judicial topics of seminal importance to judges, and therefore, the nation.
The Initiative has expanded its programming to occasionally host the Federal Judicial Center's official training program for newly-confirmed U.S. District and Circuit judges.
Archives & Oral Histories
Working with the University of Kentucky Libraries, the Heyburn Initiative is creating archives and oral history collections.
These materials are devoted to the preservation of Federal Judicial history - with a particular focus on Kentuckians' contributions - and understanding the way the three branches of government interact historically and currently in our democracy.
Judge Heyburn Embraced Bipartisanship, Embodied Judicial Independence
The very fact that he was nominated to the federal bench with the bipartisan support of both Sens. Mitch McConnell and Wendell Ford foreshadowed the broad respect and national recognition he received from others.
He was known as a master of the courtroom, an artful Chief Judge, a leader in funding our Judiciary and a modernizer of procedures governing the nation's most complex and intractable lawsuits, all with his unique blend of grace, authority and humor.
Judge Heyburn, left, pictured at his Aug. 12, 1992 Senate confirmation hearing with Sens. Ford and McConnell.
