"[1] The ABA Board of Governors chooses the medal's recipient.
The medal was authorized at the 50th anniversary meeting of the ABA in 1928.
The medal itself was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser.
On the obverse is a profile of John Marshall with the inscription "To the end it may be a government of laws and not of men," from the Constitution of Massachusetts.
On the reverse is "Justitia" with a likeness of Lady Justice.