Brennan Center for Justice

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School is a progressive, non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on issues involving democracy and justice. The Center’s mission states that it is “dedicated to strengthening democracy and securing justice, through law, scholarship, education and advocacy.”¹

The organization is currently headed by Michael Waldman, who served as Director of Speechwriting for President Bill Clinton from 1995-1999.

History and mission

The Brennan Center for Justice was founded in 1995 by the family and former law clerks of Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan. Justice Brennan’s idea of a living constitution figures largely into the center’s work. The Brennan Center is involved in issues such as voting rights, redistricting reform, economic justice, and presidential power in the fight against terrorism. The organization is part think tank, part public interest law firm, and part advocacy group.

Accomplishments

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act

The Brennan Center provided research that was central to the drafting and passing of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 ("BCRA"). The law banned "soft money" contributions to political campaigns. Brennan Center attorneys helped to successfully defend the law before the United States Supreme Court. The organization was part of a coalition that represented Senators John McCain, Russ Feingold, Olympia Snowe, and James Jeffords, and Representatives Christopher Shays and Martin Meehan in the case of McConnell v. FEC.

The Center has also provided guidance to the United States Congress and state legislatures on how to improve America’s election laws.

New York State reform

In 2004 the Brennan Center released a report calling the New York State Legislature the most dysfunctional in the United States. The report received national attention. The organization followed up on the report by representing Lopez Torres in a court case that challenges the way trial judges are selected in New York. Attorneys from the Brennan Center will defend the challenge before the United States Supreme Court in the fall of 2007.

Liberty and national security

The Brennan Center currently represents several detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, as well as other U.S. citizens and legal residents who have been detained as enemy combatants. Attorneys from the Center are challenging President Bush's authority to declare someone an enemy combatant in the fight against terrorism. The Center is also challenging Congress’s ability to deny the right of habeas corpus to those who have been detained.

References

1. [http://www.brennancenter.org/pages/about/ The Brennan Center for Justice Mission Statement]

External links

[http://www.brennancenter.org/pages/about/]