TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The American Bar Association will present the John Marshall Award to former U.S. Sen. Howell Heflin of Tuscumbia at the Annual Dinner in Honor of the Judiciary in San Francisco on Aug. 10.

Heflin will be the third recipient of the award. Past recipients are Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The John Marshall Award was established by the ABA Justice Center to recognize those dedicated to the improvement of the administration of justice. The award is named in honor of John Marshall, the fourth chief justice of the United States who is credited with establishing the independence of the judiciary and enhancing its moral authority.

Heflin graduated from The University of Alabama School of Law in 1948 and became chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 1971. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978 where he was frequently at the center of highly publicized events. Heflin was four-time chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics and an influential member of the Judiciary Committee.

He also coordinated a campaign for reform in the Alabama legal system, and in 1987, he served on the special senate committee that investigated the Iran-Contra affair. In 2001, he published his biography, “Judge in the Senate: Howell Heflin’s Career of Politics and Principle” (NewSouth).

Heflin served as the first Law Alumni Association president, the first Farrah Law Society chair, and Law School Foundation president at the UA School of Law. With the help of family, friends and colleagues, he established the Howell T. Heflin Endowment Fund in 1996.