Government Data Mining as Threat to Privacy Focus of New Report
On December 7, 2010, TCP released Principles for Government Data Mining: Preserving Civil Liberties in the Information Age. This report by TCP's Liberty and Security Committee examines the civil liberties threats posed by government data mining programs and recommends a series of reforms. The audience, including chief privacy officers from several government agencies, congressional staff and media, witnessed an energetic debate among the four panelists: Christopher Caine, President & CEO of Mercator XXI, Mary Ellen Callahan, Chief Privacy Officer, U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies at The Cato Institute, and Paul Pillar, Visiting Professor and Director of Studies for the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University.
(l-r) Gary Solis, David R. Irvine, Ronald Meister, Jonathan Tracy, Steve Vladeck.
Debate over Proper Venue for Terrorism Trials
On September 29, 2010, The Constitution Project (TCP) and the National Institute of Military Justice (NIMJ) co-hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill featuring a distinguished panel of former military leaders and others who recently visited Guantánamo Bay to observe the military commissions. Panelists were: David R. Irvine, former Republican legislator in the Utah House of Representatives; Ronald Meister, partner at Cowan, Liebowitz, and Latman Law Firm; Gary Solis, retired Marine and Georgetown University Law Center Professor; and Steve Vladeck, American University Washington College of Law Professor.
(l-r) Virginia Sloan and Michelle Alexander
Students Around Nation View Constitution Day Event
On September 17, 2010 The Constitution Project and the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law co-hosted a celebration of Constitution Day at Georgetown Law School; it was webcasted to law schools around the nation. The program included a presentation of the 2010 Constitutional Commentary Award to Michelle Alexander, author of the acclaimed book, The New Jim Crow.
Constitution Project President Virginia E. Sloan Interviews Laurence Tribe, Senior Counselor, Access to Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, at Annual ABA Conference
The interview, conducted on August 7, 2010, covered a wide variety of topics, including the progress being made by the Initiative, a recently formed office tasked with strengthening indigent defense resources and enhancing the delivery of legal services to the poor and middle class.
Panelists: (l-r) Sharon Bradford Franklin, Timothy Lewis, Hon. Douglas K. Spaudling.
Handling of Detainee Habeas Cases Focus of Hill Briefing
On July 29, 2010, TCP and Human Rights First co-hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill addressing the record of federal courts in handling Guantanamo detainee habeas cases. The briefing follows last month's release of Habeas Works: Federal Courts' Proven Capacity to Handle Guantanamo Case, a report from sixteen former federal judges examining the Guantánamo habeas litigation, which concluded that judges are playing their proper and historic judicial roles in deciding these cases.
Panelists: (l-r) Steve Vladeck, Virginia Sloan, Bryan
Stevenson, Representative Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (D-VA)
2009-2010 Supreme Court Term Review
On July 21, 2010, TCP helped organize a congressional briefing on some of the most important criminal law cases decided during the recently concluded Supreme Court term. Moderated by TCP President Virginia Sloan and hosted by Representatives Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chairman, House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties and Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (D-VA), Chairman, House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, the event was designed to provide members of Congress and their staff insight into reasoning and impact of these influential cases.
Panelists: (l-r) Peter Riegert, Admiral Donald Guter, Gary Isaac, Kate Mulgrew, Sig Libowitz, David Rittgers,
Thomas Wilner, Dan Froomkin
TCP Hosts Panel Discussion Following Screening of Guantanamo Film
On June 30, 2010, the Constitution Project joined Amnesty International, Human Rights First, and the Politics on Film Festival to host screenings of a powerful, award-winning film entitled The Response. The film is a 30-minute courtroom drama based upon actual transcripts of the Guantánamo combatant status reviews tribunals (CSRTs).
The Constitutional Right to Counsel Summit
"Bobby" Scott (D-VA), chair of the House, Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee, hosted "The Constitutional Right to Counsel Summit: A Dialogue on the State Public Defense Crisis & the Federal Response."
(l-r) Honorable Thomas Pickering, George Kendall
Constitutional Champion Awards Dinner 2010
On April 15, 2010, The Constitution Project hosted its third annual Constitutional Champion Awards Dinner. Attorney General Eric Holder served as the keynote speaker. This year's honorees included George Kendall, director of the Public Service Initiative at Squire, Sanders, & Dempsey, LLP, and the Honorable Thomas Pickering, former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
(l-r) Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree, House Judiciary Committee Counsel Carol Chodroff, Constitution Project President Virginia Sloan, and Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA)
Taken at the Department of Justice's "Looking Back, Looking Forward" Indigent Defense Symposium
On February 18-19, 2010, the Justice Department held a two-day symposium on what Attorney General Eric Holder called the "crisis" facing the indigent defense system in the United States. This event entitled, "Looking Back, Looking Forward," was the first federal agency-sponsored examination of indigent defense in a decade. The Justice Department's appointment of Harvard law professor Laurence H. Tribe marks an effort to improve access to lawyers for those unable to afford one.
Panel Focuses on Future of Guantanamo
On January 22, 2010, TCP joined with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Open Society Institute to sponsor a panel discussion held in New York City to examine the future of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Panelists were: Stephen Abraham, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.), US Army Intelligence Corps (Reserves); Honorable John Coughenour, Federal District Court, Seattle; Talat Hamdani, member, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows; Shane Kadidal, Senior Managing Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights; Celeste Koeleveld, former Chief of the Criminal Division and Assistant United States Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York; and Brad Wiegmann, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division, U.S. Department of Justice.
