American Constitution Society for Law and Policy

The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) is an organization of lawyers and law students in the United States that promotes progressive and liberal public policies and legal theories.

Issue groups

The ACS's "Constitution in the 21st Century" aims "to promote positive, much-needed change in our legal and policy landscape" by "bringing together scholars and practitioners to formulate and advance a progressive vision of our Constitution and laws that is intellectually sound, practically relevant and faithful to our constitutional values and heritage" through a series of law and policy issue groups that "communicate and popularize progressive ideas through papers, conferences and media outreach." There are eight "project issue groups," each co-chaired by several prominent law professors or lawyers. The groups are:
*"Access to Justice" - "addresses barriers to access to our civil justice system, including, among other issues, efforts to strip courts of jurisdiction, raise procedural hurdles, remove classes of cases from federal court, insulate wrongdoers from suit, limit remedies and deprive legal aid services of resources. It focuses attention on ways to ensure that our justice system is truly available to all." ["Access to Justice." American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. [http://www.acslaw.org/c21/accesstojustice] ]
*"Constitutional Interpretation and Change" - "Ideological conservatives have been quite successful in promoting neutral-sounding theories of constitutional interpretation, such as originalism and strict construction, and in criticizing judges with whom they disagree as judicial activists who make up law instead of interpreting it. The Constitutional Interpretation and Change Issue Group works to debunk the neutrality of those theories and expose misleading criticisms. It also articulates effective and accessible methods of interpretation to give full meaning to the guarantees contained in the Constitution." ["Constitutional Interpretation and Change." American Constitution Society for Law and Policy. [Constitutional Interpretation and Change] ]
*"Criminal Justice" - "The administration of our criminal laws poses challenges to our nation's fundamental belief in liberty and equality. Racial inequality permeates the system from arrest through sentencing. The United States' imposition of the death penalty increasingly has set us apart from much of the world and has raised concerns about the execution of the innocent. Sentencing law and policy have led courts to impose lengthier sentences, resulting in the incarceration of an alarming percentage of our population. The recent invalidation of mandatory federal sentencing guidelines has left sentencing in flux. Failure to provide adequate resources for representation of accused individuals and investigation of their cases has weakened the criminal justice system. Restrictive rules governing collateral review of convictions have closed the courts to many. This Issue Group explores these and other issues affecting criminal justice."
*"Democracy and Voting" - "focuses on developing a comprehensive vision of the right to vote and to participate in our political process. It identifies barriers to political participation that stem from race, redistricting, the partisan and incompetent administration of elections, registration difficulties, felon disenfranchisement and other problems that suppress access to voting and threaten the integrity of our electoral process."
*"Economic, Workplace and Environmental Regulation" - "encompasses a broad range of issues in the areas of labor law, environmental protection, opportunity, and administrative law. Among the topics it examines are workplace democracy, climate change and the enforcement of environmental laws, the regulatory process, corporate governance, and wealth inequality."
*"Equality and Liberty" - "The protection of individual rights lies at the core of a progressive approach to the law. The Equality and Liberty Group addresses means of combating inequality resulting from race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age and other factors. It also explores ways of protecting reproductive freedom, privacy and end-of-life choices and of making work accessible and meaningful."
*"Religion Clauses" - "No issue was more central to our Nation's founding than freedom of religion and no part of the Constitution continues to capture the imaginations and passions of Americans more than the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment. The Religion Clauses Group provides a forum for discussion about the meaning and interpretation of the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses and also investigates broader questions regarding religion in America—including the appropriate relationship between church and state in contemporary society and the role of religion and religious belief in American politics and public life."
*"Separation of Powers and Federalism" - "Recent years have witnessed an increase in executive power at the expense of the other branches of the federal government. This change has had a profound effect on our civil liberties, government transparency and the rule of law. The Separation of Powers and Federalism Group addresses the proper balance of power in our system of checks and balances, as well as other issues related to the power of the President. It also addresses the importance of preserving the independence of the judiciary. In addition, this Group focuses on the federalism jurisprudence of the Supreme Court, which has led it to strike down an unprecedented number of congressional enactments, threatening the ability of Congress to protect civil rights, the environment and workers. Finally, the Group also examines positive visions of federalism that will promote the ability of government at all levels to pursue progressive policies."

Published white papers include advocacy of instant-runoff voting [http://www.acslaw.org/node/3057] , a zero-tolerance policy with respect to torture [http://www.acslaw.org/node/2887] , and a meaningful interpretation of the Establishment Clause which would prohibit religious orthodoxy from being taught in public schools [http://www.acslaw.org/C21/document/Intelligent_Design_White_Paper.pdf] . Other ACS white papers have focused on defining the proper scope of legal protections for journalists and their sources [http://www.acslaw.org/node/385] , preserving the constitutional rights of so-called "enemy combatants" [http://www.acslaw.org/node/349] , and using existing law to protect the rights of GLBT Americans [http://www.acslaw.org/node/3008] .

The "Harvard Law & Policy Review" (HLPR) is the official journal of the American Constitution Society [http://www.hlpronline.com/] . Founded in 2006, HLPR promotes innovative approaches to policy challenges by providing a credible and prominent forum for substantive debate between progressive legal scholars, policymakers, and practitioners.

peakers

Speakers at ACS events have included:
*U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer;
*Many federal judges, including Ann Aiken, Lynn Adelman, Marsha S. Berzon, Rosemary Barkett, William B. Bryant, Guido Calabresi, Ruben Castillo, Robin J. Cauthron, David Coar, Andre Davis, Michael J. Davis, Raymond C. Fisher, William Fletcher, Marvin Garbis, Merrick Garland, Nancy Gertner, John Gleeson, Joan Gottschall, David Hamilton, Michael Daly Hawkins, Thelton Henderson, Ellen Segal Huvelle, William Wayne Justice, Alex Kozinski, Kermit Lipez, Gerard Lynch, Boyce F. Martin, Jr., Paul Magnuson, Michael W. McConnell, Michael McCuskey, Theodore McKee, Diana Gribbon Motz, Louis Oberdorfer, Richard Paez, Virginia Phillips, Robert Pratt, Jed S. Rakoff, Stephen Reinhardt, James Rosenbaum, Edmund Sargus, Shira Scheindlin, Mary M. Schroeder, Sonia Sotomayor, Jeffrey Sutton, David S. Tatel, Kim McLane Wardlaw and Diane Pamela Wood;
*Former Vice President Al Gore
*U.S. Senators Joe Biden, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Russ Feingold, Tom Harkin, Ted Kennedy, Chuck Schumer, Paul Wellstone, John Edwards, Gary Hart, and Sherrod Brown
*U.S. Representatives Tammy Baldwin, Bob Barr, Artur Davis, Rosa DeLauro, Barney Frank, Jesse Jackson, Jr., John Lewis and Jan Schakowsky
*Former Attorney General Janet Reno
*Former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder
*Former Solicitors General Drew S. Days, III, Walter E. Dellinger III, and Seth P. Waxman

Notes

External links

* [http://www.acslaw.org/ Official website]
* [http://www.acsblog.org/ ACSBlog]