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The UDC-DCSL chapter of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy ("ACS") has sponsored a diverse range of programs and speakers during the 2003-04 academic year.
"Meet Your Professors" Programs
In September 2003, the ACS held the first in a series of lunchtime presentations aimed at giving students the opportunity to know the "real person" behind the professor in the classroom. The initial "Meet Your Professors" event featured Professors William L. Robinson
(Employment Discrimination, Race and the Law), Joyce Batipps (HIV/AIDS & Public Entitlements Clinic), and William G. McLain (Constitutional Law I, Conflict of Laws, and Federal Courts). In March 2004, Professors Joseph B. Tulman (Juvenile/Special Education Clinic), Christine L. Jones (Lawyering Process), and John F. Terzano (Legal Reasoning)
participated in a second program. The faculty members talked about the unique life experiences that led to their legal careers and shaped their perspectives of United States Constitution; students were fascinated by the professors' personal and professional backgrounds, and by their thoughtful views of the role of the Constitution in American society.
The Law and Politics of Capital Punishment
In addition, the American Constitution Society co-sponsored a forum on the law and politics capital punishment in October, 2003, which is more fully described in a separate article on page 13 of this issue.
Wrongful Conviction Cases
Criminal justice issues were also the focus of a program held in March 2004, when the ACS hosted a lecture by Scott Christianson, author of Innocent: Inside Wrongful Conviction Cases, a book recently published by the New York University Press.
Guantanamo Prisoners Program
In January 2004, the ACS presented a panel discussion of Rasul v. Bush, the case in which the United States Supreme Court has granted certiorari to determine whether the federal courts have jurisdiction to decide challenges to the legality of the detention of the some 660 "enemy combatant" prisoners presently held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Bush administration has asserted the executive authority to declare American citizens and non-citizens alike to be "enemy combatants," and, on the strength of that unilateral designation, to imprison them secretly, indefinitely, without charge, without
trial, and without access to family or lawyers. The administration also contends, centrally, that the judicial branch has no power to review the legality of those policies, or the specific executive decisions made under them.
Professor Will McLain began the January 9 discussion with a detailed analysis of Johnson v. Eisentrager, the 1950 Supreme Court decision relied upon by the Bush administration to support the proposition that the courts are powerless to review the lawfulness of executive branch actions at Guantanamo Bay. Professor McLain explained that, from the domestic law perspective, the significance of Rasul is that the outcome of the case will likely determine whether the judicial review doctrine of Marbury v. Madison will remain robust and vital during the extended campaign against terrorism. Justice Black's dissenting opinion in Eisentrager said that the overarching issue there was whether we would have (or not) "an independent judiciary with authority to check abuses of executive power and to issue writs of habeas corpus liberating persons illegally imprisoned." Professor McLain observed that Rasul similarly presents fundamental and profoundly important questions about the "wartime" role of judicial review in a separated powers scheme of constitutional government. Professor James C. Gray, Jr., then examined the Guantanamo Bay controversy from the perspective of international law, with a particular focus on relevant provisions of the 1949 Geneva Convention on Treatment of Prisoners of War. Finally, attorney and civil liberties activist Elaine Cassel concluded the discussion by summarizing what she characterized as the Bush administration's "law-free zone" in the war on terrorism.
Founded in 2001 at the Georgetown Law Center as a progressive alternative to The Federalist Society and comprising law students, lawyers, judges, and legal academicians, the ACS is a legal organization committed to fostering an inclusive vision of the law based on fundamental principles of respect for human dignity, protection of individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, and access to justice. The UDC-DCSL chapter of the ACS was established in 2002.
Professor McLain, the group's faculty advisor, complimented the chapter's membership and current officers — President Karen Walker, '04, Vice President Deborah C. Anderson, '05, Secretary Lee Lucas, '05, and Treasurer William G. McLain IV, '05 — for their energetic work in staging a stimulating series of programs during the 2003-04 academic year.
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