Story and photo by Ashley Traylor, Editor-in Chief

Indiana Supreme Court Justice, Steven David visited Murray State this week.

He spent three days meeting with students and administrators and hosted the Speech and Debate union.

One of the classes that David spoke to students in was the mass communication law course.

Kevin Qualls, associate professor of journalism and mass communications, said David’s classroom visit reiterated what he had been teaching the students this semester.

“It reinforced what they are learning is real,” Qualls said.

David, a 1979 graduate of Murray State, met with ROTC cadets along with political science, pre-law and journalism students, and their respective faculty, as well as deans and directors of the university.

“I really think my mission was to come down here, and to the extent, I could talk to students to show you, ‘If I can do it, you can do it,’” David said. “You are really only limited by your own imagination.”

David was the first in his family to go to college. Before being selected among 34 applicants to serve as a Supreme Court Justice, he served 28 years in the U.S. Army and 15 years as a trial court judge in Boone County, Indiana.

“I did a really good job of being me,” David said. “I did not try to be you or you. I can’t compete. You’re the best you, right? I can’t be you…I can’t compete with your life experience or who your family is. I can only be me. And if that happens to work out, it works out. And if I’m selected, then I’m selected. If I’m not, I’m not rejected. I’m just not selected.”

David was nominated by the U.S. Army and selected by the secretary of defense to be the chief defense counsel at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention camp. During his tenure as chief defense counsel, he represented Salim Ahmed Hamdan and Osama bin Laden’s driver.

“It was one of the most difficult professional and personal times in my life,” David said.

He gave the students a lesson to consider about choosing between right and wrong from the time he spent working at Guantanamo Bay.

“It’s really not that hard to choose between right and wrong,” he said. “The hard decision is choosing between what is right and what is easy. Usually what is easy if often the wrong thing to do. Doing what is right is often hard.”

Besides explaining his career experiences and inspiring students to pursue their dreams, David answered students’ questions about legal issues they had been learning about in the class and provided real-world insight on topics like the use of social media, cameras in the courtroom and the procedures of the First and Sixth Amendments.

Qualls said David did not have any connections with politics, except for one notable high school teammate and he was able to work his way up to the supreme court.

“He was on the same debate team with the Vice President, (Mike) Pence,” Qualls said.