Brooklyn Law School ACLU

Our full e-board is now:

Co-Chair: Elizabeth Komar
Co-Chair: Ava Page
Secretary: Flo Mao
Social Chair: Benjamin Tracy
Treasurer: Amy Millican
Debate Co-Chair: Ryan Merola
Debate Co-Chair: David Goldberg
Street Law Coalition Coordinator: Nathan Everhart

Welcome aboard all!

On January 20th, 2010, the Brooklyn Law School ACLU chapter hosted James Esseks, the Litigation Director of the ACLU’s Gay Bisexual Transgenger Project, Matthew Faiella, staff attorney at the NYCLU, and Ross Levi ’97, Director of Public Policy and Education at the Empire State Pride Agenda. The distinguished panel was moderated by Professor Nelson Tebbe, who has an upcoming article on marriage equality in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

The panelists detailed the current state of marriage rights extended to gay and lesbian couples in New York state and the rest of the nation. The tone was optimistic, despite recent setbacks in New York, Maine, and elsewhere. The panelists conveyed that the overall trend was positive in light of the fact that there were almost no marriage or marriage-like rights given to same-sex couples 10 years ago. However, the panelists reinforced the notion that there was much ground to be covered before true marriage equality can be said to exist. Legislative and litigation strategies were discussed to achieve these ends. The current case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger [wikipedia][decision]  was discussed, including its potential treatment in the Supreme Court as well as alternate Constitutional Arguments (as outlined by Prof. Tebbe in his article).

[Pictures coming soon]

On Tuesday, October 20, 2009, approximately 40 good-looking BLS students with a thirst for knowledge, a desire for justice, and hunger for lunch attended the BLSACLU debate on Investigating Torture.  The debate pitted two pairs of passionate BLS students against each other to ask tough questions the Obama administration has yet to address:  “Who should be held accountable for the questionable and potentially illegal methods used to interrogate detainees?”  While the Department of Justice Special Prosecutor, John Durham, has been charged with investigating interrogators that exceeded the “enhanced methods” approved in the memos written by the Office of Legal Council, the BLS students debated whether other groups should be investigated, specifically:

1) the interrogators that followed the memos’ prescribed techniques;

2) the lawyers that wrote the memos; and,

3) the policymakers (like Vice President Cheney, C.I.A. Director George Tennant, and President Bush) that authorized the memos  and use of the interrogation techniques in them.

Amanda Melnick and Fanny Lam represented the pro-investigation side of the debate and led their argument with calls for justice, cries for protection of human rights, and appeals to existing law addressing torture.  Robert McRae and Lillian Tan represented the anti-investigation side and calmed the calls for investigation with the sobering realities of the post 9/11 world, the complexities of providing legal counsel to the president and the nation, and the number of other political priorities facing the nation.  A poll taken before and after the debate showed that these issues are complex and that the populous (as represented by 40 BLS students) is divided on whether to investigate the interrogators who followed the memos and the lawyers that authored them.  Unsurprisingly perhaps, BLS students were nearly unanimous in their support for investigations of top officials in the last administration.   Sahadi’s falafel and hummus rounded out the afternoon.