RESTORING THE RULE OF LAW
As we celebrate the 221st anniversary of
the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, I want the
next president – whoever that may be – to pledge his commitment
to restoring the rule of law. It is a sad fact that for the
past seven and a half years the Bush Administration has treated
the Constitution and the rule of law with a disrespect never
before seen in the history of our country. The years that
follow this president’s shameful legacy will be the true test
of the strength of our democracy.
I want to help the next president undertake this critical
task by providing a blueprint of what must be done to restore
the rule of law. As Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee
of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I held a hearing on Tuesday,
September 16, on this very issue. During the hearing, the
Subcommittee heard testimony from legal and historical experts
on what steps the next president and the next Congress must
take to repair the damage done by the Bush Administration
to the rule of law. The hearing was an effort to provide the
next president with a full range of recommendations for reestablishing
appropriate checks and balances in a variety of areas, including
warrantless wiretapping, interrogation standards, detention
policy, abuse of executive privilege, excessive government
secrecy, violations of privacy and misleading Congress.
In addition to the testimony of the witnesses at the hearing,
I solicited responses from a host of other law professors,
historians, advocates and other experts to help craft this
blueprint for the next president, and the next Congress, so
that starting in January 2009 we can begin to reverse the
damage done to our Constitution by the previous administration.
Opening Statement at Restoring the Rule of Law Hearing
Senate
Floor Speech on Restoring the Rule of Law
Transcript
and testimony of hearing witnesses (pdf)
Additional
written testimony for the record (pdf)
Walter
Dellinger
Partner, O'Melveny & Myers, LLP
Visiting Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Former Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel
(1993-1996)
Former Acting Solicitor General, (1996-1997)
Mickey
Edwards
Board of Directors, The Constitution Project
Lecturer, Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy, Princeton
University
Former Member of Congress (R-OK), 1977-1993
Harold
Koh
Dean and Gerard C. & Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of
International Law
Yale Law School
Elisa
Massimino
Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director
Human Rights First
John
D. Podesta
President and CEO, Center for American Progress Action Fund
Chief of Staff to President William J. Clinton, 1998-2001
Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr.
Senior Counsel
Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of
Law
Suzanne
E. Spaulding
Principal
Bingham Consulting Group
Charles
J. Cooper
Partner, Cooper & Kirk, PLLC
Patrick F.
Philbin
Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Kyndra
Rotunda
Visiting Assistant Professor of Law
Chapman University School of Law
Robert Turner
Professor, General Faculty
Associate Director, Center for National Security Law
University of Virginia School of Law
American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
American Library
Association and the Association of Research Libraries
Bill of Rights
Defense Committee, Nancy Talanian, Executive Director
Center for Democracy
& Technology, Gregory T. Nojeim, Director, Project on
Freedom, Security & Technology
Center for National
Security Studies, Kate Martin, Director, and Lisa Graves,
Deputy Director
Center for Strategic
and International Studies (CSIS), Dr. Sarah E. Mendelson,
Director
The Center
for Victims of Torture, Douglas A. Johnson, Executive
Director
Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Common
Cause, Sarah Dufendach, Vice President for Legislative Affairs
Constitution
Project
National
Religious Campaign Against Torture, Linda Gustitus, President,
and Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director
National
Security Archive, Meredith Fuchs, General Counsel
Open the Government,
Patrice McDermott
The Rutherford
Institute, John W. Whitehead
Joint Statement
of 20 legal scholars
Steven
Aftergood, Federation of American Scientists
Mark Agrast,
Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress Action Fund
Leonard M.
Cutler, Professor of Public Law, Siena College
Daniel
Farber (Sho Sato Professor of Law, University of California,
Berkeley) and Anne
Joseph O’Connell (Assistant Professor of Law, University
of California, Berkeley)
Bruce Fein,
The Lichfield Group, Inc.
Lou Fisher,
Specialist in Constitutional Law, Law Library of the Library
of Congress
Amanda Frost
(Associate Professor Law, American University Washington College
of Law) and Justin Florence (Associate, O’Melveny & Myers,
LLP)
The Honorable
Elizabeth Holtzman, Former Congresswoman from New York,
1973 – 1981
Heidi Kitrosser,
Associate Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
Seth F. Kreimer,
Kenneth W. Gemmill Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania
Law School
Alan B. Morrison,
Visiting Professor, Washington College of Law at American
University
Ralph Nader
Deborah
N. Pearlstein, Visiting Scholar, Woodrow Wilson School
of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
Peter M. Shane,
Jacob. E Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law, Ohio State
University Moritz College of Law
Geoffrey
R. Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor,
The University of Chicago
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