Despite the current atmosphere where politicians decry activist judges and presidential tweets assail court rulings, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Diane P. Wood is optimistic about the future of the judiciary.

“No one is ever going to be happy with every decision because, as we say, we’re in a line of business where half the people walk away losing,” she said recently while visiting Wabash College. “But if we’ve been a faithful listener, if we’ve tried to respond to the arguments, I think you can leave people with the sense that they got a fair hearing.”

Wood was named Wabash College’s 2017 recipient of the Donald W. Peck Senior Medal for Eminence in the Law. The Chicago appellate judge was on campus April 24 to deliver a lecture titled “Public Service and Private Initiative: An American Tradition” and attend the 44th annual Peck Dinner.

Wood is the second woman to receive the Peck Medal that was first given in 1974. Judge Sarah Evans Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana was the first in 1989.

Read more at The Indiana Lawyer