We must cast aside the labels that divide us. to meet the constitutional challenges of our time.

Transcription

1 We must cast aside the labels that divide us to meet the constitutional challenges of our time.

2 Contents Letter from the President...1 Mission, Structure & Funding...2 Year in Review...3 Criminal Justice Program Enforcing the Right to Counsel Promoting Systemic Criminal Justice Reform...6 Combating Wrongful Executions...7 Rule of Law Program Protecting Constitutional Rights in the Digital Age Promoting Accountability and Transparency Prosecuting and Detaining Terrorism Suspects A Commitment to Constitutional Stewardship Working with the Media Constitution Day Constitutional Champion Awards Staff Board of Directors Policy Advisory Committee Acknowledgements... 16

3 We must cast aside the labels that divide us to meet the constitutional challenges of our time. Letter from the President Dear Friends, In 2010, the American public seemed as divided over crucial constitutional issues as at any time in recent history. A public already anxious because of a weakened economy engaged in contentious debates over the proper limits on government authority, the requirements for a fair and effective criminal justice system, the consequences of rapidly advancing surveillance and other technologies, and the need to balance safety and security in an age of terrorism. On these, and other major issues, The Constitution Project (TCP) has been honored to serve as a leading bipartisan voice of reform for 14 years. And we believe that our mission bringing together unlikely allies from across the political spectrum in order to meet the constitutional challenges of our time has never been more relevant or vital. We know that upholding the Constitution cannot be entrusted to any single person, faction, or party. We also know that consensus-based problem-solving produces the most viable, long-term solutions. In the pages to come, you will see many examples of how our work has been strengthened by the expertise of men and women who don t necessarily share the same ideologies, beliefs or backgrounds. For example, we recruited officials from previous Republican and Democratic administrations, former military leaders, ambassadors, judges and Members of Congress to serve on our new Task Force on Detainee Treatment, a bipartisan investigation into the treatment of detainees by the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations. We mobilized former judges and prosecutors from across the country to speak out for clemency, or the opportunity for appeal, for individuals facing execution despite compelling evidence of their wrongful convictions or even innocence. And we created a new Immigration Committee, including high-ranking officials from several past administrations, to restore justice to the immigration system for all who enter it. For those of you who are already familiar with our work, I think you will be pleased by the continuing success of our ongoing initiatives and excited to hear about our new projects. For those who are learning about us for the first time, I am grateful for your interest and hope you will join us in our cause. Your support will help to ensure that our work to preserve the rights and values of our nation s founding charter for future generations will continue. Thank you. Virginia E. Sloan, President 1

4 Mission, Structure & Funding The Constitution Project (TCP) was established in 1997 by Virginia Ginny Sloan, who continues to serve as president and a member of its Board of Directors. Concerned about the proliferation of constitutional amendment proposals being seriously considered in the mid-nineties, and using her experience from nearly 15 years as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, Ms. Sloan reached out to esteemed individuals from the private, nonprofit and government sectors to solicit support for a new initiative to ensure the restraint in the constitutional amendment process that the Founders intended. Soon a Who s Who of American lawyers, scholars and former judges and policymakers representing a remarkable breadth of ideological and political diversity agreed to participate in the new enterprise. TCP s first report, Great and Extraordinary Occasions: Developing Guidelines for Constitutional Change was published shortly thereafter. When it became clear that the model that served this issue so well was worth applying to other controversial constitutional issues, TCP began to forge a national reputation for its bipartisan approach. Well into our second decade, we continue to grapple with the key constitutional issues confronting Americans in the 21st century. TCP s unique concept of leveraging the experience and credibility of unlikely allies and other experts to develop scholarship, to create and promote consensus policy recommendations, and to educate policymakers, the media, and the public is demonstrated in each of the following blue-ribbon committees: Access to Courts Committee Constitutional Amendments Committee Death Penalty Committee Immigration Committee Liberty and Security Committee National Right To Counsel Committee Sentencing Committee War Powers Committee Task Force on Detainee Treatment TCP is not a membership organization. We do not charge for our publications or for attending our events. We rely solely on the support and generosity of foundations, individual donors, and corporate sponsors. For more information about how to support our mission and work, please visit our Web site at 2

5 We must cast aside the labels that divide us to meet the constitutional challenges of our time. Year in Review Through our Rule of Law and Criminal Justice programs, TCP worked with a broad, bipartisan array of experts and practitioners to reform the nation s broken criminal justice system and to strengthen the rule of law. We developed consensus recommendations, reports, and statements on a host of issues, including the need to incorporate privacy safeguards into federal data mining programs, the ability of federal courts to effectively handle habeas petitions from suspected terrorists, the imperative of courts to hear claims of wrongful convictions and innocence, and the crisis in the government s obligation to provide lawyers for people charged with crimes who cannot afford to hire one. Scholarship TCP published a host of new reports on issues ranging from the proven ability of federal courts to handle cases involving alleged terrorists to the threat government use of advanced technologies in fighting crime and terrorism poses to civil liberties and privacy. We expanded our National Right to Counsel Committee s recommendations to address the growing trend in individuals facing imprisonment for civil contempt without access to counsel, as well as provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee an analysis of a judicial nominee s statements regarding the death penalty. We also examined the threats posed by collateral attacks on the rights of terrorism suspects. We released statements condemning both the recent series of attacks on lawyers who represent suspected terrorists as well as the Terrorist Expatriation Act that seeks to strip the citizenship of suspected terrorists before they are even charged with a crime. Policy Reforms We promoted concrete criminal justice reforms, transparency and accountability in government decisionmaking, and the rule of law in government actions involving suspected terrorists to policymakers at all levels of government, including the White House, governors, and federal and state legislators. Advocacy Working with attorneys from leading law firms around the country, TCP filed nine amicus curiae briefs in federal and state courts to protect vital constitutional safeguards and rights. We hosted congressional briefings on high-profile issues and organized meetings between members of our blue-ribbon committees and federal officials to promote our consensus recommendations. Our staff participated in numerous meetings with key members of the Executive Branch to urge implementation of our recommendations on issues ranging from government transparency to the state secrets privilege to administration of the federal death penalty. Public Education We hosted or participated in numerous events designed to educate the public on key criminal justice and rule of law issues. TCP staff and committee members wrote Op-Eds and blogs for publications nationwide, and our work has been cited in scores of major news outlets. This year, we undertook a major overhaul of our Web site, including the addition of two sub-sites to better showcase our major program areas. In addition, our e-newsletter was redesigned and relaunched as the monthly TCP Journal. We have been gratified by the response we have received from such key audiences as the media, peer organizations and policymakers, who say these communications channels keep them better informed. 3

6 Criminal Justice Program Our nation s criminal justice system is broken. Programs that provide criminal defense services to the poor, which are fundamental to a fair and accurate system of justice, are chronically underfunded, understaffed, and stretched to the breaking point. Even capital defendants too often have unfair trials resulting in inaccurate verdicts because of, for example, dramatically inadequate legal representation, unreliable evidence and alarming racial disparities. They are then too often unable to challenge those results because of needless technical barriers to presenting claims of wrongful conviction or innocence. Our work helps to counter these national trends and to ensure that constitutional safeguards for the criminally accused are applied in a just, effective, and accurate way. Enforcing the Right to Counsel In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case of Gideon v. Wainwright that the noble ideal of a fair trial cannot be achieved if the poor man charged with a crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him. Nearly 50 years later, this ideal sadly remains just that: an ideal not a reality. In June 2010, at TCP s request, U.S. House Judiciary Committee leaders hosted a summit on the crisis in state public indigent defense systems most notably, the lack of funding. TCP staff helped organize the Capitol Hill event and TCP President Virginia Sloan was one of two moderators. Panelists included personnel from the Justice Department, members of TCP s National Right to Counsel Committee, and other leading experts on indigent defense reform, including prosecutors and defenders. At the summit and at public education events throughout the country, TCP promoted the recommendations from our highly regarded 2009 report, Justice Denied: America s Continuing Neglect of Our Right to Counsel. These education efforts bore fruit later in the year when TCP worked with the Justice Department and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy to craft and build 4

7 We must cast aside the labels that divide us to meet the constitutional challenges of our time. Every day, we fail to provide constitutionally mandated legal counsel to people charged with a crime who cannot afford a lawyer. We must work harder to assure access to justice for all Americans. William S. Sessions Partner, Holland & Knight, LLP; TCP Board Member; TCP National Right to Counsel Committee Honorary Co-Chair; former Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation; former Chief Judge, United States District Court for the Western District of Texas The Constitutional Right to Counsel Summit: A Dialogue on the State Public Defense Crisis & the Federal Response support for the Justice for All Reauthorization Act. This groundbreaking new legislation would permit the federal government to work with states to improve their indigent defense systems and hold states accountable when they fail to guarantee a criminal defendant s constitutional right to counsel. To identify and address the vast disparities in federal money that supports state law enforcement and prosecutors over indigent defense providers, the legislation also requires states to submit strategic plans for their criminal justice systems, including indigent defense, in order to qualify for federal criminal justice grants. Larry D. Thompson Senior Vice President & General Counsel, PepsiCo, Inc.; TCP National Right to Counsel Committee Member; former Deputy Attorney General of the United States under George W. Bush; former United States Attorney, Northern District of Georgia 5

8 Criminal Justice Program Promoting Systemic Criminal Justice Reform Crime rates are down, but prison populations and corrections spending have skyrocketed in recent years. TCP has sought to reverse this over-incarceration crisis by promoting reforms that permit greater judicial discretion in sentencing, prohibit new criminal laws unless the defendant has the requisite intent to commit the act, and eliminate racial discrimination. In 2010, TCP helped recruit a bipartisan coalition of judges and prosecutors to push Congress to eliminate the unwarranted and racially discriminatory sentencing disparity for crack and powder cocaine offenses. This work, part of a larger coalition effort, culminated in President Obama signing legislation dramatically reducing the disparity and eliminating the mandatory minimum sentence for simple crack cocaine possession. Congress Votes to Narrow Gap in Cocaine Sentencing Rules For Congress to take a step toward saying we have made a mistake and this sentence is too severe is really remarkable, said TCP President Virginia Sloan. In collaboration with over two dozen organizations, we released Smart on Crime: Recommendations for the Administration and Congress, among the most comprehensive reports ever published to address the problems facing America s criminal justice system. Nearly 100 detailed policy recommendations across 16 criminal justice areas were developed to spur action by the Administration and Congress. In addition, TCP managed all communications for the release of the report, including the development of a Web site ( TCP also formalized its unique approach of recruiting new champions for reform by creating the Clearinghouse of New Voices on Criminal Justice Reform. We invited over 100 influential unlikely allies, including former federal and state prosecutors and judges, corrections officers, and political conservatives, to support various reforms, and to work with our partners on criminal justice reform efforts. They signed letters to policymakers, joined amicus briefs to courts, spoke to legislators around the country, and authored Op-Eds and blogs in publications nationwide. These efforts contributed to legislative and legal victories in Washington and in the states. 6

9 We must cast aside the labels that divide us to meet the constitutional challenges of our time. Combating Wrongful Executions Unusual Alliance Protests Execution An unlikely array of Republicans and Democrats, attorneys general and federal and state judges and prosecutors has lined up to fight the execution of a death row inmate many believe to be innocent. The use of capital punishment arouses strong passions among both supporters and opponents. TCP bridges the chasm between these two camps through a unique approach: by including both supporters and opponents of capital punishment in our Death Penalty Committee, which has issued recommendations designed to promote procedural safeguards and to lessen the risk that the wrongfully convicted, including those who are actually innocent, will be executed. TCP filed several amicus briefs and organized statements on the side of death row inmates whose convictions were marked by appalling procedural flaws or unresolved factual questions. The following example demonstrates the power of the voices of the unlikely allies with whom we work in speaking out about wrongful convictions. Kevin Keith was scheduled to be executed by the State of Ohio in September Yet, persistent doubts about his guilt permeated the case, and no court of law had ever cumulatively considered evidence tending to show his innocence, that had been suppressed during his trial. When lawyers for Mr. Keith asked for help, TCP organized a letter from 31 former judges and prosecutors from across the country who urged Ohio Governor Ted Strickland to grant clemency. The letter received wide attention, including being featured in a New York Times story. Less than a month later, Governor Strickland announced that he was commuting Mr. Keith s sentence from death to life in prison. TCP also helped convince the U.S. Justice Department to rescind regulations that would have increased the likelihood that a state capital defendant could face the death penalty without adequate assistance of counsel during post-conviction review. We promoted changes to the Justice for All Act that could increase the availability of federal funding for capital defense training, and supported legislation to enforce the Vienna Convention to guarantee foreign nationals subject to death or a life sentence, an opportunity to seek review of their cases in U.S. federal courts if they were denied access to their country s consul. In the administration of capital punishment around the country, procedural safeguards are deeply flawed and assurances of fundamental fairness are lacking. The exonerations of people in prison and on death row have taught Americans a hard lesson our criminal justice system is fallible and our courts can, and sometimes do, convict the wrong person. These are matters of life or death. We must make the reform of the death penalty system a priority. Mark White Chairman, Geovox Security, Inc.; TCP Death Penalty Committee Co-Chair; former Democratic Governor of Texas Thomas A. Gottschalk Of Counsel, Kirkland & Ellis LLP; TCP Policy Advisor; TCP Death Penalty Committee Member; former Executive Vice President, Law and Public Policy, General Motors Corporation 7

10 Rule of Law Program A decade after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the United States is still grappling with how to reduce national security threats in a manner consistent with constitutional liberties and safeguards. TCP has fostered bipartisan consensus on a wide array of issues such as the use of terrorist watch lists and public video surveillance systems; the use of immigration law as a counterterrorism tool; the constitutionality of material support laws; and the reach of the government s state secrets privilege. Protecting Constitutional Rights in the Digital Age The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that individuals should be secure in their papers against unreasonable searches. Technology has been developing much more rapidly that the laws designed to safeguard Fourth Amendment rights, and we have been working to restore Fourth Amendment safeguards in several areas. While the Framers obviously could not foresee that papers stored in one s home would be replaced by digital data stored in the cloud, Congress must update the decades-old laws that govern government access to electronic communications. Therefore, in 2010, we joined the Digital Due Process Coalition, a group of think tanks, advocacy groups, and major technology companies, including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, that advocate for comprehensive reform of the Electronic Communication Privacy Act (ECPA). We are helping to build public support for providing stronger privacy protections in response to new technologies and changed usage patterns while still preserving the tools law enforcement personnel need to respond to criminal activity and emergency circumstances. 8

11 We must cast aside the labels that divide us to meet the constitutional challenges of our time. Rapidly advancing technology has provided the government with an ever-expanding array of new tools to combat crime and terrorism, including surveillance techniques that provide access to vast quantities of data, such as very personal, private information. We must be vigilant in working with governmental entities to ensure that law enforcement uses these new technologies in ways that protect Mary Ellen Callahan, Jim Harper, Sharon Bradford Franklin, Paul Pillar, Christopher Caine (L-R). constitutional rights and civil liberties. In December, we released a new report, Principles for Government Data Mining: Preserving Civil Liberties in the Information Age. The report examines the U.S. government s increasing reliance on data mining the use of computing technology to sift through staggering quantities of information, including personal data as a tool to identify possible wrongdoing. The report includes a series of detailed recommendations that will provide the government with a much needed legal framework to effectively balance national security needs with civil liberties. We also hosted an event featuring some of the nation s top experts on this issue. Panelists were 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. TCP Senior Counsel Sharon Bradford Franklin served as moderator. Bob Barr CEO, Liberty Strategies, LLC; TCP Liberty and Security Committee Member; TCP Death Penalty Committee Member; former Republican Member of Congress Suzanne E. Spaulding Of Counsel, Bingham McCutchen; Principal, Bingham Consulting Group; TCP Policy Advisor; TCP Liberty and Security Committee Member; former Executive Director, The National Commission on Terrorism; former Assistant General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency 9

12 Rule of Law Program Promoting Accountability and Transparency Think Tank Plans Study of How U.S. Treats Detainees TCP President Sloan said the Task Force will try to reconcile the lack of clarity and consistency in U.S. detainee treatment policies to ensure public confidence in future policy decisions. Democracy s fundamental principles openness, public debate, and accountability are most vulnerable when our nation s security is threatened. TCP has sought to strengthen these principles by recommending practical ways to make government decision-making more transparent and to hold decision-makers accountable for their actions. In 2010, we established the bipartisan Task Force on Detainee Treatment. The goal of this new panel is to bring to the American people a comprehensive understanding of what is known and what may still be unknown about the past and current treatment of detainees by the U.S. government from the Clinton to the Obama administrations. The highly esteemed members of the Task Force bring diverse ideological views and a wide range of professional backgrounds to this critical exercise in holding government accountable to the public. We also worked closely with the Obama administration in its efforts to reform practices of over-classifying information and overly restricting unclassified information. In November, the White House issued an Executive Order to provide clearer standards for releasing sensitive information that does not meet the standards for classified national security information. The Order incorporated many of the recommendations for reform from our 2009 report, Reining in Excessive Secrecy. Task Force on Detainee Treatment Eleanor J. Hill, Chairperson, Partner, King & Spalding; Staff Director, Joint Congressional Inquiry on the September 11th attacks; Inspector General., Department of Defense, Asa Hutchinson, Chairperson, Senior Partner, Asa Hutchinson Law Group; Undersecretary, Department of Homeland Security, ; Member of Congress, (R-AR), Ambassador James R. Jones, Chairperson, Partner, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP; Member of Congress (D-OK), ; Ambassador to Mexico, Talbot Sandy D Alemberte, Past President of the American Bar Association and Co-Founder of the ABA s Central European and Eurasian Law Institute; President Emeritus, The Florida State Univ. Richard A. Epstein, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, New York Univ. Law School; Peter and Kristen Bedford Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution; Senior Lecturer, Univ. of Chicago Law School Dr. David P. Gushee, Distinguished Univ. Professor of Christian Ethics; Director, Center for Theology and Public Life, Mercer Univ. Azizah al-hibri, Professor, The T.C. Williams School of Law, Univ. of Richmond; President, Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights Brigadier General David Irvine (ret.), Salt Lake City Attorney; retired Army Reserve strategic intelligence officer; former four-term state legislator (R-UT) Lt. Gen. Claudia J. Kennedy (ret.), First woman to serve as a three star general in the United States Army; three-decade U.S. Army career including Lieutenant General, Deputy Chief of Staff of Army Intelligence Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, Vice Chairman, Hills & Company; five-decade career as U.S. diplomat including under secretary of state for political affairs and ambassador to the United Nations Judge William S. Sessions, Partner, Holland & Knight; Director of the FBI, ; Chief Judge, , and Judge, , U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas Dr. Gerald E. Thomson, Lambert & Sonneborn Prof. of Medicine Emeritus, Columbia Univ.; Board Member, Physicians for Human Rights Judge Patricia M. Wald, Member, President s Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the U.S. Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, ; Judge, , and Chief Judge, , U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. Circuit; Judge, Int l. Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia,

13 We must cast aside the labels that divide us to meet the constitutional challenges of our time. Prosecuting and Detaining Terrorism Suspects Ghailani Verdict Ignites Debate over the Proper Court For Terrorism Trials Mason Clutter, the counsel of the Rule of Law Program at the bipartisan Constitution Project, noted that most of the arguments that proponents of military tribunals usually make about the risk of civilian trials like extreme security costs, grandstanding by the defendant, and the disclosure of classified information did not happen in the Ghailani case. TCP s commitment to the rule of law compelled us to work to restore the habeas corpus rights of the Guantanamo detainees, oppose a policy of indefinite detention without charge; and advocate for civilian trials for terrorism suspects. In 2010, more than a dozen signatories to our statement, Beyond Guantanamo: A Bipartisan Declaration, traveled to Washington, D.C. for meetings with Members of Congress. In June, we released a new report, entitled Habeas Works: Federal Courts Proven Capacity to Handle Guantanamo Cases. In it, sixteen former federal judges argue that the judiciary is well equipped to handle the habeas petitions of Guantanamo detainees. In addition, we issued two statements condemning collateral attacks on the rights of suspected terrorists Prosecute Terrorism Suspects Not Their Lawyers and another opposing the Terrorist Expatriation Act bill that sought to strip the citizenship of terrorism suspects before they were even convicted of a crime. TCP also joined with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Open Society Institute to sponsor a panel discussion in New York City on the future of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Panelists were Stephen Abraham, Lieutenant Colonel (ret.), U.S. 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; and Celeste Koeleveld, former Chief of the Criminal Division and Assistant United States Attorney, U.S. Attorney s Office, SDNY. New Yorker magazine writer Jeffrey Toobin served as moderator. In the aftermath of September 11th, U.S. policies for detention of so-called enemy combatants, have raised serious constitutional concerns. These have included attempts to detain individuals without providing a meaningful opportunity to challenge the lawfulness of the detention, stripping constitutional habeas corpus rights, and claiming unreviewable executive authority to detain individuals indefinitely without charge. We must assure that the proper balance of power among the branches is restored and that detention policies protect constitutional rights. Azizah al-hibri Professor, The T.C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond; President, Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights; TCP Liberty and Security Committee Member; TCP Task Force on Detainee Treatment Member David Cole Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center; TCP Liberty and Security Committee Co-Chair 11

14 A Commitment to Constitutional Stewardship Educating the public about the role and relevance of the Constitution in the lives of all Americans is a key component of TCP s mandate. Through events, publications and interaction with the media, we work to remind our citizens that stewardship of the Constitution is a responsibility that we all must share. TCP hosts two signature events every year: a Constitution Day panel discussion of an important constitutional issue, and the Constitutional Champion Awards dinner in the spring. These events enable us to celebrate the Constitution and the public officials, scholars, and authors who have demonstrated an extraordinary ability and dedication to promoting constitutional values. Working with the Media On an ongoing basis, TCP writes Op-Eds and articles and conducts media interviews to help correct the record when misstatements about the Constitution appear in print. We believe that the media has a stake in accurate reporting on these issues, and we have found them to be responsive to our outreach. TCP was uniquely positioned to put the 2010 national debate over interpreting and amending the Constitution into perspective by making Great and Extraordinary Occasions: Developing Guidelines for Constitutional Change (published in 1999), available to opinion leaders and others. Calling on the Constitution: Cite it Right Article I, Section 8, Clause 18 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to make all laws that are necessary and proper to execute the other powers of the federal government. But the federal government has no power to promote the general welfare; The Post s story seemed to confuse this article with Article I, Section 8, Clause 1, which authorizes Congress to lay and collect taxes used to pay for the general welfare. No one claims that the health-care law can be supported under a general authority of Congress to act for the general welfare. We can, and should, discuss the Constitution s terms and meanings. In doing so, however, we must be scrupulous about the accuracy of those terms and meanings. The people s understanding of the extent of congressional power, and the courts interpretation of congressional action, depend on it. Virginia E. Sloan, TCP President 12

15 We must cast aside the labels that divide us to meet the constitutional challenges of our time. Constitution Day On September 17th, our annual Constitution Day event, held at the Georgetown University Law Center, was webcast live to law schools across the country for the first time. Pulitzer-Prize winning New York Times reporter Charlie Savage our first honoree presented the 2010 Constitutional Commentary Award to Michelle Alexander, author of the acclaimed book, The New Jim Crow, about the impact of mass incarceration in the United States. Virginia Sloan and Michelle Alexander (L-R) The event also included a lively and informative discussion, The Right to a Fair Trial: Should the Rules in Terrorism Cases Be Different from Those in Other Criminal Prosecutions? Our panelists included James Gilmore III, former Virginia governor and head of the Gilmore Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction; Denny LeBoeuf of the ACLU; Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform; Todd Hinnen, President Obama s Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the National Security Division of the Department of Justice; and moderator David Cole of Georgetown University Law Center, who co-chairs our Liberty and Security Committee. At various times, constitutional amendments have been proposed for the purpose of achieving narrow partisan advantage or without thinking through all the consequences of the amendment. We urge greater care and thoughtfulness in proposing changes to the Constitution. Mickey Edwards Vice-President, Aspen Institute; TCP Board Member; former Republican Member of Congress (R-OK) L. Michael Seidman Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center; TCP Policy Advisor Constitutional Champion Awards In April, over 350 guests joined us in honoring former Ambassador Thomas Pickering for his career-long dedication to the rule of law, and attorney George Kendall for his efforts on behalf of indigent defendants during our third annual Constitutional Champion Awards dinner. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder served as the keynote speaker. Ambassador Thomas Pickering, George Kendall (L-R) U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. 13

16 Staff, Board & Policy Advisors Staff TCP has grown from one founder with a vision to a talented and dedicated team of 18 women and men from the worlds of government, law, journalism and the non-profit and business sectors. The passion to make a constructive difference in safeguarding the Constitution whether it involves strengthening access to justice, protecting civil liberties or ensuring governmental transparency and accountability is the trait common to all. Virginia E. Sloan President Adrienne Lee Benson Policy Associate Criminal Justice Program Mason C. Clutter Counsel Rule of Law Program Kelly Davies* Development Coordinator Christopher Durocher Government Affairs Counsel Criminal Justice Program Louis Fisher Scholar in Residence Sharon Bradford Franklin Senior Counsel Rule of Law Program Jacob Gillig* Administrator Task Force on Detainee Treatment Charlie Martel Staff Director Task Force on Detainee Treatment Mary Schmid Mergler Senior Counsel Criminal Justice Program I. Scott Messinger Chief Operating Officer Alka Pradhan* Counsel Task Force on Detainee Treatment Alison Roach* Fried Frank Legal Fellow Chrystie Swiney* Counsel Task Force on Detainee Treatment Stephen I. Vladeck Supreme Court Fellow Francine Wargo Officer Manager Dallas Jamison Senior Communications Director Hannah White* Communications Coordinator *Hired in

17 We must cast aside the labels that divide us to meet the constitutional challenges of our time. Board of Directors One of the goals we set for 2010 was to expand our Board of Directors to enhance the experience and diversity of our leadership. Our Board includes individuals who have held key policy positions with the Johnson, Nixon, Clinton, Obama, and both Bush administrations, former Republican and Democratic Members of Congress and judges, esteemed law professors and practitioners, and senior policy staff at major non-profit organizations. Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar Stanford Law School Mickey Edwards Aspen Institute and Princeton University Armando Gomez* Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP Morton H. Halperin Open Society Foundations Stephen F. Hanlon Chair Holland & Knight LLP Asa Hutchinson* Asa Hutchinson Law Group PLC David Keene* The American Conservative Union Timothy K. Lewis Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP Paul Saunders Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP William S. Sessions Holland & Knight LLP Kristine Huskey* University of Texas School of Law Virginia Sloan President The Constitution Project Policy Advisory Committee *Joined in We have expanded and diversified our Policy Advisory Committee, adding Rosemary B. Freeman of PublicWorks, a communications expert; Alberto Mora of Mars, Incorporated, who as the Navy s General Counsel first brought the world s attention to the treatment of terrorist suspects detained by the U.S.; and Suzanne E. Spaulding of Bingham McCutchen LLP and a leading national security expert. We continue to be guided, as well, by an Amicus Curiae Committee, comprised of leading Supreme Court litigators and other constitutional law experts, who generously donate their time to provide guidance on the briefs that we file in the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts. Christopher Caine Mercator XXI Peter Edelman Georgetown University Law Center Colonel Dean Esserman Providence Police Department Rosemary B. Freeman PublicWorks Thomas A. Gottschalk Kirkland & Ellis LLP Abner J. Mikva University of Chicago Law School Alberto Mora Mars, Incorporated Corey Owens Facebook L. Michael Seidman Georgetown University Law Center Suzanne E. Spaulding Bingham McCutchen LLP Roger Wilkins George Mason University Hubert Williams Police Foundation 15

18 Acknowledgements TCP thrived in 2010 despite the difficult economic climate, receiving larger grants than ever before from the foundations that have historically supported our work, as well as support from foundations that had not previously funded us. This financial support enabled us to expand the size of our team, as well as the scope and reach of our work. We leveraged the efforts of our hard-working and committed full-time staff with the generous pro bono assistance of some of the nation s top law firms, the hard work of a dozen interns from some of the best colleges and law schools in the country, and the volunteer efforts of the nearly 250 prominent Americans who serve on our blue-ribbon committees. We continued, as well, to make excellent use of our Fried Frank Fellows a series of outstanding junior lawyers that the firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson has shared with us since the establishment of this fellowship in June These lawyers have provided indispensible legal counsel to both our Criminal Justice and Rule of Law Programs. While we cannot thank all of our generous donors and sponsors individually here, we would like to thank the following foundations for their special role in enabling us to carry out our vital mission in 2010: Anonymous Atlantic Philanthropies Community Foundation for the National Capital Region CS Fund/Warsh Mott Legacy Ford Foundation George Kaiser Family Foundation Lawrence and Lillian Solomon Fund Nathan Cummings Foundation Foundation to Promote Open Society Open Society Policy Center Overbrook Foundation Public Welfare Foundation Proteus Action League Proteus Fund Rockefeller Brothers Fund Wallace Global Fund We are also grateful to the following law firms for their invaluable pro bono assistance in 2010: Arnold & Porter LLP Chadbourne & Parke LLP Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP Fulbright & Jaworski LLP Hogan Lovells US LLP Holland & Knight LLP Mayer Brown LLP Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP Ropes & Gray LLP Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP Wiley Rein LLP Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP 16

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