Future of Guantanamo Focus of NY Event

On February 24th, TCP hosted a panel discussion in New York City on the future of the Guantanamo detention policies, entitled Guantanamo Without End? The audience heard from a distinguished group of panelists that included: Steven A. Engel, a Partner at Dechert LLP and the former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel during the George W. Bush administration; Eugene R. Fidell, President, the National Institute of Military Justice; Jonathan Hafetz, Associate Professor of Law, Seton Hall University School of Law; Hon. James Robertson, U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia (ret.); and Nancy Soderberg, former alternate representative to the United Nations with the rank of Ambassador.

Following the event webcast by chapter

Proper Reach of Material Support Laws Remains in Dispute

TCP and KARAMAH hosted a videotaped  panel lecture on February 24, 2011 entitled, Constitutional Pitfalls of Material Support Laws. Senior Counsel Sharon Bradford Franklin moderated the panel, which included David Cole, Professor, Georgetown University Law Center and co-chair of TCP’s Liberty and Security Committee; Kay Guinane, Program Manager, Charity and Security Network; and Dr. Azizah Y. al-Hibri, the Chair of KARAMAH and a member of the Liberty and Security Committee.  

TCP has long expressed concerns that U.S. material support laws sweep too broadly and threaten First Amendment rights and allow the government to designate groups as "foreign terrorist organizations” without providing evidence or a chance for the group to respond.

Congressional Oversight without Partisan Battles Focus of Hill Briefing

On February 7th, 2011 the Constitution Project and the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) co-hosted a staff briefing in the Capitol Visitors Center entitled Congressional Oversight:  What it Means and How to Make it Work.  The panelists were Mickey Edwards, former Member of Congress (R – OK) and Constitution Project Board Member; Morton Rosenberg, former Specialist in American Law at the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and author of the Constitution Project’s congressional handbook When Congress Comes Calling:  A Primer on the Principles, Practices, and Pragmatics of Legislative Inquiry; and Stanley Brand, former General Counsel to the House of Representatives under Speaker Tip O’Neill, Jr.  They provided expert advice on how to conduct oversight that is productive, avoids partisan battles, and furthers Congress’s constitutional obligations.