Constitution Project

The Constitution Project is a United States nonprofit think tank focused on constitutional governance, civil liberties, criminal justice, and the rule of law. Its stated method is bipartisan deliberation: rather than organizing its work around a single ideological position, it brings together participants with different political and professional backgrounds to examine difficult legal questions and develop areas of agreement. The organization was founded by Virginia Sloan, who is identified in the reference material as its founder and president. The project’s work is organized principally through two programs. The Rule of Law Program examines threats to constitutional limits and institutional accountability, particularly those associated with expansive executive authority after the September 11, 2001 attacks, congressional failure to exercise independent oversight, and attempts to restrict judicial review of executive or legislative conduct. Its Liberty and Security Committee considers how the government can address security risks while preserving civil liberties. Its work has addressed subjects including watch lists, the state-secrets privilege, habeas corpus, and public video surveillance. The committee has been co-chaired by Georgetown law professor David D. Cole and conservative political figure David Keene. The Criminal Justice Program addresses procedural fairness and the rights of people accused of crimes. Its work includes the Death Penalty Committee, a bipartisan body bringing together supporters and opponents of capital punishment who share concern about wrongful executions and the reliability of the system. The committee was formerly known as the National Committee to Prevent Wrongful Executions and produced reports advocating reforms involving effective legal representation, racial fairness, proportionality, accuracy, and safeguards against error. The program also includes a Right to Counsel Committee, whose participants have included former public officials, judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and legal academics. The organization has participated in constitutional litigation as an amicus curiae, often in coalition with civil-liberties, legal, and conservative organizations. Its cited briefs addressed cases involving military detention, habeas corpus, alleged government surveillance, state secrecy, access to counsel, and the treatment of detainees. Matters mentioned in the reference material include Padilla v. Rumsfeld, Padilla v. Hanft, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, ACLU v. NSA, Rahmani v. United States, National Institute of Military Justice v. Department of Defense, and El-Masri v. United States. In addition to committees and litigation, the Constitution Project has convened expert bodies on detention and interrogation practices. In fall 2010 it initiated an eleven-person Task Force on Detainee Treatment. Governance is provided by a board of directors whose listed members have included lawyers, judges, former legislators, military personnel, prosecutors, academics, corporate counsel, and former executive-branch officials. The organization’s combination of bipartisan committees, public reports, legal briefs, and expert task forces places it between a policy institute and an advocacy-oriented constitutional-law organization. The available reference material does not establish its current operating status, headquarters, website, funding, or subsequent institutional changes.

The Constitution Project emerged as a nonprofit institution dedicated to building bipartisan agreement on consequential constitutional and legal issues in the United States. Its identity is defined less by a commercial brand or membership model than by the structure of its policy work: committees composed of people with differing political perspectives, supported by research, public commentary, litigation, and recommendations for institutional reform. Virginia Sloan is identified as its founder and president. A major part of the project’s historical work developed in response to debates over executive power and civil liberties following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The organization’s Rule of Law Program examined claims of expansive presidential authority, congressional inaction, and efforts to limit the ability of courts to review government conduct. Through its Liberty and Security Committee, it explored the tension between public safety and constitutional freedoms. Topics associated with the committee included watch lists, the state-secrets privilege, habeas corpus, and government use of public video surveillance. The committee’s bipartisan leadership paired David D. Cole, a Georgetown University law professor, with David Keene, a former chairman of the American Conservative Union. The Constitution Project also developed a substantial criminal-justice portfolio. Its Criminal Justice Program focused on the rights of criminal defendants and the preservation of due-process protections and meaningful access to court. The Death Penalty Committee brought together advocates on both sides of the capital-punishment debate who shared concern that the American system posed an unacceptable risk of wrongful execution. Previously known as the National Committee to Prevent Wrongful Executions, the committee issued reports calling for improvements in legal representation, racial fairness, proportionality, accuracy, and safeguards against error. Its publications included Mandatory Justice – Eighteen Reforms to the Death Penalty and the later update Mandatory Justice – The Death Penalty Revisited. The Right to Counsel Committee represented another strand of the criminal-justice program. Its listed co-chairs and participants included former Vice President Walter Mondale, former FBI Director William S. Sessions, former judges, a state chief justice, a district attorney, and other legal professionals. This composition reflected the project’s preference for cross-ideological and cross-professional discussion rather than a narrowly partisan legal campaign. Litigation support was a further vehicle for the organization’s work. The Constitution Project filed or joined amicus briefs in cases involving José Padilla, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, the ACLU’s challenge to alleged government surveillance, Roya Rahmani, the National Institute of Military Justice, and Khaled El-Masri. These matters addressed detention, habeas corpus, military authority, surveillance, state secrecy, access to counsel, and the relationship between national security and judicial oversight. In several cases, the project worked alongside organizations such as the Cato Institute, the Center for National Security Studies, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, People for the American Way, the Rutherford Institute, and the ACLU. In fall 2010, the organization initiated an eleven-member Task Force on Detainee Treatment, extending its work from litigation and commentary into expert examination of detention practices. Its governance structure included a board chaired by Armando Gomez and members drawn from law, government, academia, the military, prosecution, corporate leadership, and public policy. The available source material documents the organization’s programs and activities but does not establish its founding year, current website, headquarters, financial position, or present operational status.

• 2010

  Task Force on Detainee Treatment established

  [1]Constitution Projecten.wikipedia.org

  The Constitution Project initiated an eleven-person task force to examine detainee treatment in fall 2010.

• 2001

  Post-September 11 rule-of-law focus

  [1]Constitution Projecten.wikipedia.org

  The organization’s Rule of Law Program addressed constitutional and civil-liberties concerns associated with expanded executive authority and national-security policy after the September 11 attacks.

A bipartisan constitutional-policy and legal advocacy organization focused on reconciling national security, civil liberties, due process, and institutional checks and balances.

• Policy program

  Rule of Law Program

  A policy program examining threats to constitutional limits, judicial oversight, institutional accountability, and civil liberties, especially in the context of executive power and national security.

• Policy program

  Criminal Justice Program

  A program focused on due process and fair treatment for people accused of crimes, including access to counsel, capital punishment, and safeguards against wrongful convictions or executions.

• Policy report

  Mandatory Justice – Eighteen Reforms to the Death Penalty

  A report from the Death Penalty Committee advocating reforms intended to improve the fairness, accuracy, proportionality, and reliability of capital-punishment proceedings.

• Policy report

  Mandatory Justice – The Death Penalty Revisited

  An update to the committee’s earlier death-penalty report. It recognized some improvements while identifying additional measures needed to reduce error and strengthen fairness.

• 2010

  Launch of the Task Force on Detainee TreatmentStrategy

  Background

  Debates over detention practices and the treatment of detainees formed part of the organization’s broader rule-of-law and national-security work.

  Action taken

  The Constitution Project convened an eleven-person task force in fall 2010 to examine detainee treatment.

  Aftermath

  The available source material does not provide the task force’s detailed findings or subsequent institutional impact.

  Source

1. 1Constitution Projecten.wikipedia.org