Ave Maria School of Law, a Roman Catholic law school, is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Enrollment as of Fall 2005 is approximately 330 students. Ave Maria espouses a natural law philosophy and teaches law within the context of the Catholic intellectual tradition. Politically, its student body and faculty lean conservative. Ave Maria's dean and president is Bernard Dobranski and its faculty includes legal scholar Robert Bork and scholar Bruce Frohnen. City nickname: A-squared or Tree Town Location Location of Ann Arbor within Washtenaw County, Michigan. ... Robert Bork Robert Heron Bork (born March 1, 1927 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a conservative American legal scholar who advocates the judicial philosophy of originalism. ... Bruce P. Frohnen is Associate Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Senior Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal. ...

Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino's Pizza and former owner of the Detroit Tigers, supports the school through his Ave Maria Foundation and serves as the chairman of the board of governors of the school. Tom Monaghan (born March 25, 1937 in Ann Arbor, Michigan), formally Thomas S. Monaghan, is a Catholic entrepreneur and philanthropist from Michigan who founded Dominos Pizza in 1960. ...

Ave Maria School of Law's Board of Governors is currently considering a move to the newly planned town of Ave Maria, about 30 miles east of Naples, Florida, where the new campus of Ave Maria University, another institution supported by Monaghan's Ave Maria Foundation, is to be built. This is a matter of some controversy within the school, as many of the students and faculty are opposed to such a move. Naples is a city located in Collier County, Florida, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 20,976. ...

History

Ave Maria's beginnings lie in 1998, when Stephen Safranek, Richard Meyers, Joseph Falvey, Michael Kenney and Mollie Murphy left University of Detroit Mercy School of Law after a dispute regarding the invitation of a pro-choice Michigan Supreme Court justice to give the oath at the end of the school's Red Mass. The founding faculty enlisted the financial support of Thomas Monaghan and recruited Bernard Dobranski to serve as Dean. The Cathedral of St. ...

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia assisted Ave Maria's leadership in developing the school's curriculum. Justice Antonin Scalia Justice Antonin Scalia (born March 11, 1936) (Sometimes known by the nickname Nino) has been a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice since 1986. ...

In 1999, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the school's first annual Ave Maria Lecture. Justice Clarence Thomas Justice Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) has been an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1991. ...

Ave Maria's inaugural class entered the school in 2000. In 2003, Ave Maria's first graduating class passed the Michigan Bar Exam at a rate of 93 percent among first-time takers, which was the top rate in Michigan. The University of Michigan Law School came in second with a pass rate of 90 percent. An aerial view of the Law Quadrangle at the University of Michigan. ...

Ave Maria gained full accreditation from the American Bar Association in 2005. American Bar Associations Washington, DC office The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. ...

External links

• Ave Maria School of Law http://avemarialaw.edu/
• The Founding of Ave Maria School of Law by Stephen Safranek http://whoseamsol.blogspot.com/2005/10/professor-safraneks-talk-on-founding.html
• National Review article on Ave Maria School of Law in National Review Online http://www.nationalreview.com/miller/miller200312020910.asp
• Wall Street Journal Taste Page article on the potential move to Florida http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110007536