Non-profit organization
The Constitution Project is a
non-profit
think tank in the
United States whose goal is to build
bipartisan consensus on significant
constitutional and legal questions. Its founder and president is Virginia Sloan. The Constitution Project’s work is divided between two programs: the Rule of Law Program and the Criminal Justice Program. Each program houses bipartisan committees focused on specific constitutional issues.
[1]
Rule of Law Program
The Rule of Law Program addresses perceived threats to the
rule of law and to
constitutional liberties that have resulted from the assertions of
expansive presidential authority in the aftermath of the
attacks of September 11, 2001,
Congress’s simultaneous failure to exercise its duties as a separate and independent branch of government, and efforts by both Congress and the President to strip the courts of their jurisdiction to oversee the actions of the
executive and
legislative branches.[
citation needed]
Liberty and Security Committee
The Liberty and Security Committee of the Rule of Law Program is co-chaired by
David D. Cole, professor of law at
Georgetown University Law Center, and
David Keene, former chairman of the
American Conservative Union.
[2] The Committee is convened to address the “variety of important questions about how to enhance our security while simultaneously protecting our civil liberties.”
[3] Members of the committee have authored columns for major newspapers on
watch lists, the
state secrets privilege,
habeas corpus, and
public video surveillance.
Legal briefs
-
Padilla v. Rumsfeld,
US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- The Constitution Project, with the
Cato Institute, the
Center for National Security Studies, the
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights,
People for the American Way, and the
Rutherford Institute, filed an
amicus brief in support of
José Padilla.
-
Padilla v. Rumsfeld,
Supreme Court of the United States
- The Constitution Project, with the
Cato Institute, the Center for National Security Studies, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, People for the American Way, and the Rutherford Institute, filed an
amicus brief in support of José Padilla.
- Padilla v. Hanft,
US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- The Constitution Project, with the Center for National Security Studies, filed an
amicus brief in support of José Padilla.
-
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld,
Supreme Court of the United States
- The Constitution Project filed an
amicus brief in support of
Salim Ahmed Hamdan.
-
ACLU v. NSA,
US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- The Constitution Project, with the Center for National Security Studies, filed an
amicus brief in support of the
ACLU.
- Rahmani v. United States,
Supreme Court of the United States
- The Constitution Project filed an
amicus brief urging the Court to grant
certiorari to
Roya Rahmani.
- NIMJ v.
Department of Defense,
US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit
- The Constitution Project filed an
amicus brief in support of the
National Institute for Military Justice.
- El-Masri v. United States
- The Constitution Project filed an
amicus brief urging the Court to grant
certiorari to
Khaled El-Masri.
[2]
Coalition to Defend Checks and Balances
The Coalition to Defend
Checks and Balances is convened to address “the risk of permanent and unchecked presidential power, and the accompanying failure of Congress to exercise its responsibility as a separate and independent branch of government.
[4] In addition to publishing its own statements and reports, the Coalition also joins statements and reports issued by other committees.
Reports and Statements
- Statement on Presidential
Signing Statements
- The
statement “condemns certain uses of presidential signing statements and calls for immediate action from both the Executive and Legislative branches of the federal government to respond to a ‘constitutional crisis’ that is endangering our system of checks and balances.”
[5]
Criminal Justice Program
The Criminal Justice Program seeks to counter a broad-based effort to deny fundamental day-in-court rights and
due process protections to those accused of crimes.
Death Penalty Committee
The
Death Penalty Committee of the Criminal Justice Program is co-chaired by
Gerald Kogan, former Chief Justice of the
Florida Supreme Court, and
Beth Wilkinson, a prosecutor in the
Oklahoma City bombing case.
[6] The Death Penalty Committee is a bipartisan committee of death penalty supporters and opponents who believe that the risk of wrongful executions in the United States is too high. It was formerly known as the National Committee to Prevent Wrongful Executions.
[7]
Reports and statements
- Mandatory Justice – Eighteen Reforms to the Death Penalty
- The
report “expresses the Committee’s deep concerns with regard to the implementation of the death penalty in the United States, and calls for crucial reforms, including in the areas of effective counsel, racial fairness, and proportionality.”
- Mandatory Justice – The Death Penalty Revisited
- An update to the committee’s first publication on the topic, the
report notes “some improvements in recent years and identifies further steps that must still be taken in order to minimize mistakes and increase fairness and accuracy.”
Right to Counsel Committee
The
Right to Counsel Committee is co-chaired by
Walter Mondale (honorary), former Vice-President of the United States,
William S. Sessions (honorary), a partner at
Holland & Knight LLP, former
Director of the FBI, and former Chief Judge of the
United States District Court for the Western District of Texas,
Rhoda Billings, former Chief Justice of the
North Carolina Supreme Court, Robert Johnson,
District Attorney for
Anoka County,
Minnesota, and former president of the National District Attorneys Association, and
Timothy K. Lewis, counsel at
Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP and former Judge of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
[8]
Task Force on Detainee Treatment
In the fall of 2010, the Constitution Project initiated an eleven-person Task Force on Detainee Treatment.
[9]
[10]
Members
Board of directors
The Constitution Project is governed by a
board of directors. The board is currently chaired by Armando Gomez, a partner at the law firm of
Skadden Arps who previously served as an attorney-advisor to the
IRS and as chief counsel to the National Commission on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Service.
[12] Other members of the board include:
- David Beier
- Managing director at Bay City Capital LLC and former Chief Domestic Policy Adviser to Vice President
Al Gore
-
Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar
- Stanley Morrison Professor of Law at
Stanford University and former Obama and Clinton Administration official
-
Kristine Huskey
- Associate clinical professor and director at the Veterans’ Advocacy Clinic at the
James E. Rogers College of Law at The University of Arizona, and former director of the Anti-Torture Program at
Physicians for Human Rights
-
Asa Hutchinson
- Former Member of Congress (R-AR) and former Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security at the
Department of Homeland Security, and administrator of the
Drug Enforcement Administration, under President George W. Bush
-
Brig. Gen. David R. Irvine
- Former Republican state legislator, retired Army brigadier general, and former instructor of prisoner-of-war interrogation and military law at the Sixth U.S. Army Intelligence School
-
David Keene
- Former chair of the
American Conservative Union and Nixon Administration official
- AbdAllah El Bey
- Minister of Jurisprudence
Private Attorney General Director of Constitutional Studies at the
Moorish American National Govt
-
Timothy K. Lewis
- Co-chair of the appellate practice at the law firm of
Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis LLP and former judge of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and for the
United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
- Lawrence D. Rosenberg
- Partner at the law firm of
Jones Day and co-chair of the Trial Practice Committee of the
American Bar Association’s Litigation Section
-
William S. Sessions
- Partner at the law firm of
Holland & Knight LLP, former director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and former chief judge for the
United States District Court for the Western District of Texas
-
Jane C. Sherburne
- Senior executive vice president and general counsel to
The Bank of New York Mellon, member of the Council of the
Administrative Conference of the United States and former Clinton Administration official
-
Bradley D. Simon
- Founding partner of Simon & Partners LLP and former
Assistant U.S. Attorney for the
Eastern District of New York
-
Virginia Sloan
- President and founder of the Constitution Project
Board members Emeritus include:
-
Mickey Edwards
- Former Member of
Congress (R-OK) and vice president and director of the Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership Program at the
Aspen Institute
-
Phoebe Haddon
- Dean of The
University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
-
Dr. Morton H. Halperin
- Director of US Advocacy at the
Open Society Institute – DC
- Stephen F. Hanlon
- Founder of the Community Services Team at the law firm of
Holland & Knight LLP
- Laurie Robinson
- Former
Assistant Attorney General for the
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
- Paul C. Saunders
- Retired Partner at the law firm of
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
See also
References