Liberal legal group comes to the fore

[firedupdem]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16832.html

Sixteen appointees and advisers helping president-elect Barack Obama's Justice Department transition efforts all recently sat on the board of an organization little known outside legal circles: The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy.

The liberal legal network, which blossomed during eight years of Democratic exile, counts as its veterans Obama’s attorney general nominee Eric Holder, Vice President-elect Joe Biden's chief of staff Ron Klain, and future White House Staff Secretary Lisa Brown.

snip

Holder put it a slightly different way when he appeared at the group's annual meeting in June.

“With this new administration that will be taking its place in 2009, we’re going to be looking for people who share our values,” he told the 350 member audience. “I suspect that a substantial number of those people are here today.”

In his June address before the group, Holder described his vision for reversing what he called the “the disastrous course” set by the Bush administration, advising the next administration to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, declare that the U.S. does not torture, and end warrantless domestic surveillance - all positions backed by Obama.

[babylonsister]

1. More...

and thanks. News to me. From link at OP:

snip//

“I don’t think that American Constitutional Society is going to be the kind of political credential that the Federalist Society has become during the Bush years,” said Mikva. “It’s just someplace that’s natural for the administration to turn to for new ideas.”

The Society was founded in 1999 by Georgetown law professor Peter Rubin, now a Massachusetts judge. The group aimed to counter what supporters saw as a rising tide of conservatism in the legal world. It expanded into a national organization in 2001, when progressive lawyers were galvanized by the Supreme Court’s 2000 Bush v. Gore decision, which ended the Florida recount and delivered the White House to Bush. A July 2001 conference held at Georgetown attracted over 1,000 attendees, including sitting judges, senators, and other legal superstars.

Today, the group regularly hosts conferences, produces white papers, runs a journal at Harvard Law School, and boasts 165 law school chapters and 30 city chapters. ACS has roughly 24,000 recipients, according to the group, and 13,000 dues-paying members.

The group takes no position on individual cases or specific policy proposals. Rather, it's modeled around a broad legal philosophy that eschews strict constitutionalism for what Liu calls the “lived circumstances of the law” or including the consideration of outside factors in constitutional law cases.

[firedupdem]

2. Thanks! I think we're going back to actually seeing the constitution

as more than a "god dammed piece of paper".

[Swamp Rat]

3. ... and ...

PROSECUTE THE ENTIRE BUSH ADMINISTRATION!

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. AMEN!!

[DeepModem Mom]

4. K&R

[PBS Poll-435]

5. Ron Klain

:woohoo:

[firedupdem]

6. kick!

[Irishonly]

8. K&R

I have missed the constitution.