Harvard Forum on Life After Bush

The Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, a Boston-based civil rights organization, and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute of Race and Justice of the Harvard Law School, have announced a symposium at the Harvard Law School on May 16, 2008, on the topic, “Restoring America After Bush.” Cooperating sponsors include the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and the Boston Lawyers Chapter of the American Constitution Society.

Responding to nationwide dismay over how to restore the country to constitutional government and to its traditional position of world leadership, these organizations have brought together distinguished panels to discuss such vital issues as: curbing the “imperial” presidency; restoring governmental checks and balances; depoliticizing government agencies and the courts; reinvigorating habeas corpus and the Fourth and Sixth Amendments; reversing the Bush-Cheney doctrine of pre-emptive war; renewing American commitment to multilateralism; achieving real security without sacrificing fundamental rights; and reversing America’s current image as the propagator of arbitrary detention and even torture.

Panelists include Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who serves on the Select Committee on Intelligence and on the Judiciary Committee; Prof. Andrew Bacevich of Boston University, a widely published expert on international security affairs; F.A.O. Schwarz, Jr., of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School; Louis Fisher, distinguished constitutional law specialist at the Library of Congress; Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute; Prof. Charles A. Fried, Beneficial Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School and former solicitor general of the United States; and Prof. Detlev Vagts, Bemis Professor of International Law, Emeritus, also of Harvard Law School.

The conference will be held in the Ames Courtroom in Austin Hall on the Harvard Law School campus from 1 to 5 p.m. Admission is free and the public is invited. For questions or reservations, call the JALSA office at 617-227-3000 or email us at rsvp@jalsa.org.