On Sunday, July 7, Margaret H. Marshall, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, will be the featured speaker at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs. Her talk begins at 10 a.m. and is entitled Immigration and Justice.

Chief Justice Marshall is the first woman to serve as Chief Justice. During her tenure she wrote over 300 opinions, including the 2003 decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, which declared that the Massachusetts constitution prohibits the state from denying same-sex couples access to civil marriage. This ruling made Massachusetts the first state to legalize gay marriage, recently affirmed by the United States Supreme Court.

Chief Justice Marshall was born in South African and began her career as a student leader against apartheid. She led an organization called the National Union of South African Students, which was dedicated to achieving equality for all South Africans. She attended Harvard University, earning a master’s degree in education, and Yale Law School. She was named an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in 1996.

She is also a longtime summer resident of the Vineyard, along with her husband the recently deceased New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis.

The Rev. Dr. John Schule, Union Chapel trustee emeritus and retired pastor for the Federated Church in Edgartown, will perform the liturgical aspects of the service.

Union Chapel is a non-denominational church located at the intersection of Circuit, Kennebec and Narragansett avenues. The organ prelude begins at 9:40 a.m. and the service begins at 10 a.m.