1977 Carl McGowan
1978 Henry J. Friendly
1979 Paul Abraham Freund
1980 Erwin N. Griswold
1981 Lewis Franklin Powell Jr.
1982 Warren M. Christopher
1983 Lord Justice Scarman
1984 Griffin B. Bell
1985 Warren E. Burger
1986 William H. Webster
1987 Sandra Day O'Connor
1988 Edmund S. Muskie
1989 Sam Nunn
1990 Collins J. Seitz
1991 Robert M. Morgenthau
1992 Marian Wright Edelman
1993 William H. Rehnquist
1994 Richard A. Posner
1995 Lloyd N. Cutler
1996 Rex Lee (posthumously)
1997 Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1998 Alan K. Simpson
1999 Elaine R. Jones
2000 Guido Calabresi
2001 Mortimer M. Caplin
2002 Seth P. Waxman
2003 Anthony M. Kennedy
2004 J. Harvie Wilkinson III
2005 Patricia M. Wald
2006 Ronald M. Dworkin
2007 Anne-Marie Slaughter
2008 Antonin Scalia
2009 Peter J. Neufeld and Barry C. Scheck
2010 Janet Napolitano
2011 Cynthia D. Kinser
2012 George Mitchell
2013 Robert S. Mueller III
2014 Kenneth R. Feinberg
2015 Joan E. Donoghue
2016 John Gleeson
2017 Loretta Lynch
2018 Frank H. Easterbrook