The Rutherford Institute’s 2009 Summer Speaker Series
“Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.” — John Milton
The Rutherford Institute’s Summer Speaker Series engages law students, lawyers, civil liberties activists and community members in stimulating discussions with leaders from a cross-section of cultural, philosophical and legal backgrounds.
This year, The Rutherford Institute is pleased to welcome a broad array of speakers on issues ranging from property rights and human life concerns to criminal justice reform, religious freedom, and judicial activism.
For those interested in attending The Rutherford Institute’s 2008 Summer Speaker Series, please RSVP by calling (434) 978-3888.
Seating is limited, so please reserve your space early
Wednesday, June 3
morning session (10:00 a.m.)
Obama, Abortion and the Notre Dame Protests
Guest Speaker: Randall Terry
Randall Terry, pro-life activist and political conservative, founded the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, which he calls the largest peaceful civil disobedience movement in American history, in 1987 and led the group for its first 10 years. He has been arrested more than 40 times, most recently for protesting the commencement visit at the University of Notre Dame by President Barack Obama by defying a court order to stay off the school’s property. In 2003, Randall Terry founded the Society for Truth and Justice and conducted a program called Operation Witness. A registered Republican who converted to Catholicism, he considers himself a “theocentric libertarian” and feels that the evangelical movement has “politically imploded.” He was the spokesman for the Schindler family in the Terri Schiavo case. In 2006, he unsuccessfully ran as a Republican for senator of Florida’s eighth district. An accomplished musician, he’s also a big fan of the Beatles, Wayne’s World and Saturday Night Live and does pitch-perfect impersonations of Bill Clinton, Austin Powers and Dr. Evil.
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
ARE HATE CRIME LAWS A GOOD IDEA?
Guest Speaker: John Beckett, British Attorney, former TRI Attorney
After working as an academic in Japanese Studies for a number of years, John Beckett decided to pursue his childhood dream and became a barrister. Following his training in London, he came to the University of Virginia School of law to pursue an LL.M (Masters in Law) in order to become better acquainted with the U.S. perspective on commercial and constitutional law. After receiving his LLM, John worked at The Rutherford Institute for almost a year and was responsible for research and the drafting of legal memos and papers. He is now working as an Associate at a law firm in Charlottesville and plans to return to the United Kingdom to continue his career in corporate law and arbitration later this year.
Monday, June 8
Morning Session (9:00 a.m.)
HOW DO PEOPLE GET THE NEWS IN THIS DAY AND AGE?
Guest Speaker: Cal Thomas, Author and Nationally Syndicated Columnist, Washington, D.C.
Cal Thomas is America’s most widely syndicated op-ed columnist, authoring a syndicated column twice a week that reaches over 500 newspapers across the country. He is the author of 10 books, provides commentary for programs airing on over 300 radio stations and makes regular appearances on “Fox News Watch.” During the years 1980-1985, Thomas served as vice president of Moral Majority, one of the largest conservative lobbyist groups in the United States that was incredibly influential during the Reagan Administration. Thomas co-authors a weekly column in USA Today with Bob Beckel, “Common Ground,” which served as the inspiration for their book, Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America.
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
FATHER AND DAUGHTER ALLIANCE (FADA)
Guest Speaker: Pedro Moreno, Founder and President, FADA
Pedro C. Moreno serves as Counselor to the Deputy Director for Demand Reduction in the White House Drug Policy Office (ONDCP). Prior to this, he served in the Bush Administration as senior advisor for international and immigration issues at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as a senior executive with Prison Fellowship International, an attorney with The Rutherford Institute and has performed short-term assignments with the World Bank, Bank Boston and the United Nations Development Programme.
Throughout his career, Moreno has devoted himself to helping integrate marginalized individuals and communities—religious minorities, ex-offenders, immigrants, refugees and low-income people—into society at large. He has written extensively on family, ethnic conflict and social integration, with articles in the Wall Street Journal, Refuge (York University, Canada) and OSCE Bulletin (Europe). He has traveled in more than 65 countries in Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australasia, Europe and the Middle East. He holds a Master’s in international law and economics from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, completed the Specialization in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at Harvard University and received a Law Degree from the University of San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia.
He has testified before the United States Congress and has attended or conducted workshops on social issues at UN conferences throughout the world. He has been interviewed by the BBC, Australian Broadcasting Co., U.N. Radio, Voice of America, Washington Times, New York Times (Madrid), Los Angeles Times (Tokyo), Arab Times (Kuwait), Sekaj Nippo (Tokyo), El Universal (Mexico) and appeared on C-SPAN.
Pedro, his wife Amy and their three children reside in Warrenton, Virginia.
Wednesday, June 10
Morning Session (9:00 a.m.)
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN MODERN AMERICA
Guest Speaker: Robert O'Neil, Director, Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, Charlottesville, VA
Robert O’Neil became the founding director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression in August 1990, after serving five years as President of the University of Virginia. He continues as a member of the University’s law faculty, teaching courses in free speech and press, free expression and the arts, free speech and cyberspace, and other areas of constitutional law. In 1963, after serving as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., O’Neil began three decades of teaching about the First Amendment at the Universities of California (Berkeley), Cincinnati, Indiana, Wisconsin and Virginia.
In addition to teaching, he has had a distinguished career in higher education administration, serving as Provost of the University of Cincinnati, Vice President of Indiana University for the Bloomington Campus, and President of the University of Wisconsin before coming to Virginia. He has chaired the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and served on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Universities. From 1992-99, he chaired Committee A (Academic Freedom and Tenure) of the American Association of University Professors, of which he was General Counsel in 1970-72 and again in 1990-92. He also has served as a trustee or director of the Commonwealth Fund, the Fort James Corporation, the Media Institute, and Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA). In Virginia, he served as Chairman of the Board of WVPT-Public Television, as a trustee and former president of the Council for America’s First Freedom, and as the first President of Virginia’s Coalition for Open Government.
He is currently (2006-08) the coordinator of the Ford Foundation’s Difficult Dialogues Initiative. O’Neil is the author of several books, including Free Speech: Responsible Communication Under Law, The Rights of Public Employees, Classrooms in the Crossfire, Free Speech in the College Community and The First Amendment and Civil Liability, as well as many op-ed pieces and articles on free speech and press in law reviews and other journals. On numerous occasions, he has testified before state legislatures and congressional committees on the First Amendment implications of proposed legislation. A member of the Massachusetts Bar, O’Neil has argued cases before a number of Federal Courts of Appeals. A native of Boston, O’Neil holds three degrees from Harvard and honorary degrees from Beloit College and Indiana University.
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
PARENTAL RIGHTS AND VIEWPOINT DISCRIMINATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Guest Speaker: Jason Gosselin, Attorney, Drinker, Biddle & Reath, Philadelphia, PA, Affiliate Attorney for The Rutherford Institute
Jason Gosselin, an affiliate attorney with The Rutherford Institute, is an attorney in the Litigation Department of the Philadelphia law firm Drinker, Biddle & Reath. His practice is national in scope, focusing primarily on insurance and financial services business litigation. One of his areas of particular concentration is the representation of life insurers in claims litigation and sales practices litigation. He also counsels life insurers in connection with the often unrecognized exposure created by the secondary life insurance market, including viatical and life settlements. In addition to life insurance matters, his practice includes the representation of property and casualty insurers in complex coverage actions, including environmental pollution, asbestos bankruptcy, and reinsurance. He also represents businesses – both small and large – in a broad variety of “traditional” commercial litigation, including breach of contract, commercial sales and leasing, civil RICO, and unfair trade practices.
Jason has spoken on insurance-related topics, including bad faith, before insurance industry groups and at continuing legal education seminars. He has also published several articles and has achieved successful results in state and federal courts throughout the country.
Jason graduated magna cum laude from Catholic University of America, where he was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and graduated cum laude from Temple University School of Law. In law school, he served as an articles editor for the Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review.
Friday, June 12
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
LITIGATION STRATEGIES
Guest Speaker: Tom Neuberger, Attorney, The Neuberger Firm, Wilmington, DE, Affiliate Attorney for The Rutherford Institute
Thomas Neuberger is a partner in The Neuberger Firm in Wilmington, Delaware, as well as general counsel and a Board member of The Rutherford Institute. He was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, where he and his wife Judy raised their two children (his son Steve is also a lawyer and practices with him). He is experienced in many areas of law including, but not limited to, civil trials, wrongful termination of public and private sector employees, personal injury and other accident cases, labor relations, discrimination and constitutional rights. Mr. Neuberger graduated magna cum laude from St. Joseph’s College, received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Delaware and his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was an associate editor of the American Criminal Law Review and an editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. He also served as a clerk to the Honorable John H. Pratt, Judge of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. He is a member of the Bars of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Delaware Supreme Court, various U.S. Courts of Appeals and the U.S. District Court for Delaware. He is also a member of the Delaware State Bar Association; has served as a national vice president and director of the Christian Legal Society; and, in 1986, served as the Republican Party candidate for U.S. Congressman for Delaware supporting President Ronald W. Reagan. Mr. Neuberger has lectured to lawyers and law students on federal court practice and procedure, the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and recent case developments. Because of his expertise in the First and Fourteenth Amendments, he has testified before committees of the U.S. Congress. He has also authored or co-authored legal articles that have appeared in the Fordham Law Review, the St. Louis University Public Law Review, the Delaware Lawyer, the Labor Law Journal and the Equal Employment Practice Guide.
Monday, June 15
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
LIFE BEFORE LIFE
Guest Speaker: Dr. Jim Tucker, Division of Perceptual Studies, Dept. of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, University of Virginia
Jim B. Tucker, M.D., a board-certified child psychiatrist, directs research into children’s reports of past-life memories at the University of Virginia Division of Personality Studies. He worked with Dr. Ian Stevenson, the founder of this research, for several years before taking it over upon Dr. Stevenson’s retirement in 2002.
Dr. Tucker was born and raised in North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA degree in psychology in 1982, followed by a Medical Degree four years later. He then received training in general psychiatry and child psychiatry at the University of Virginia. After he completed his training, he stayed in Charlottesville and began a successful private practice in psychiatry.
After being in practice for five years, he was reading one of Dr. Stevenson’s books when he saw in a local newspaper that the Division of Personality Studies was starting a new study of near-death experiences. He contacted the division to see if help was needed in interviewing patients for the study and thus began spending very limited time at the division on a volunteer basis.
Dr. Tucker, who was raised Southern Baptist, had never seriously considered the idea of reincarnation before reading Dr. Stevenson’s book, but he became intrigued both by the children’s reports of past-life memories and by the prospect of studying them using an objective, scientific approach. In 1999, he began working half-time at the division, focusing on the children’s cases, and a year later, gave up his private practice completely to work at the university. He has now published a number of articles in scientific journals, and he has also spoken before both scientific and general audiences and made several television appearances.
Dr. Tucker is Assistant Professor of Psychiatric Medicine at the University of Virginia Health System, and in addition to conducting research, he serves as medical director of the Child & Family Psychiatry Clinic. He lives in Charlottesville with his wife and daughter.
Wednesday, June 17
Morning Session (9:00 a.m.)
DEATH ROW AND PRISONER LITIGATION:
A CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE FOR THE FORGOTTENGuest Speaker: Steven Rosenfield, Attorney, Charlottesville, VA
Steven Rosenfield is an attorney, president of the Board of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, co-founder of the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, an affiliate attorney with The Rutherford Institute and a cooperating attorney with the ACLU of Virginia. He has practiced law in Charlottesville since 1977, and his primary focus is in civil rights, criminal law and post-conviction work. He has tried three capital cases to jury, all ending in a life sentence. He has long voiced his disgust at the low fees paid to court-appointed lawyers and has been boycotting the court-appointed system as a political statement. He continues to take capital appointments in state and federal courts and is currently assigned to represent a man charged in federal court on capital murder charges in Alexandria. He has a B.S.I.E. from the University of Miami (Florida), is past President of the Charlottesville Criminal Bar Association and is a member of the ACLU of Virginia Legal Panel and the National Lawyers Guild. He was awarded the Jay Worrall Award by Offender Aid & Restoration for work in criminal justice in 1993; the Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Pro Bono Award by the Virginia State Bar - 2000; and the Emily Couric Community Advocacy Award in 2005. He also speaks at various CLE programs on criminal law topics. By his own words, he is a lousy, but improving, golfer and violin player.
Monday, June 22
Morning Session (9:00 a.m.)
BEING AN ACTIVIST FOR CHANGE
Guest Speaker: Jack Payden-Travers, Former Public Education Associate, ACLU Capital Punishment Project
Jack Payden-Travers is the Capital Punishment Project Public Education Associate for the ACLU. He is a long-time death penalty abolitionist. Prior to joining the ACLU, he served for five years as director of the Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. He has lectured at numerous law schools, colleges and high schools and delivered sermons at various houses of worship. He annually participates in the Fast & Vigil in front of the US Supreme Court and has been a frequent contributor of op-ed pieces in Virginia media. He is a nonviolence trainer for direct actions. Jack serves on the Board of Directors of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. He has been a history professor, middle school teacher, Youth Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, draft counselor, pre-school teacher, cab driver, and househusband. He holds a Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies from Hollins University and a B.A. in History from Iona College.
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
GOVERNMENTAL EROSION OF RIGHTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL
Guest Speaker: John Miska, Vietnam Veteran and Advocate for Veterans
A disabled Vietnam vet who served from 1973 to 1977 in the U.S. Army, "Big John" spends most of his free time either trying to raise awareness about the plight of today's veterans or working to alleviate their troubles. Twice a month, Big John makes the two-hour drive from Ruckersville, Va., to Washington, DC, to help with a Sunday brunch for wounded soldiers and their families. Miska drives the troops over from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital. Afterwards, Miska heads over to the National Mall, an area encompassing the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial, to hand out Buddy Poppies, which are the official memorial flowers of the VFW.
Wednesday, June 24
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
IS THIS AMERICA?: THE ATTACK ON THE CONSTITUTION AND WHAT IT WILL TAKE TO REPAIR IT
Guest Speaker (via telephone): Nat Hentoff, Syndicated Columnist
Nat Hentoff received a B.A. with highest honors from Northeastern University and did graduate work at Harvard. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1950 and from 1953 through 1957 was associate editor of Down Beat magazine. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in education and an American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award in 1980 for his coverage of the law and criminal justice in his columns. In 1985, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of Laws by Northeastern University.
He has published many books on jazz, biographies and novels, including a number of books for children. Among his works: Does Anybody Give A Damn?: Nat Hentoff on Education; Our Children Are Dying; A Doctor Among Addicts; Peace Agitator: The Story of A. J. Muste; The New Equality; The First Freedom: The Tumultuous History of Free Speech in America; The Day They Came to Arrest the Book; The Man from Internal Affairs; Boston Boy; John Cardinal O’Connor: At the Storm Center of a Changing American Catholic Church; Free Speech for Me and Not for Thee: How the American Left and Right Relentlessly Censor Each Other; Listen to the Stories: Nat Hentoff on Jazz and Country Music; and The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance.
Hentoff has come to be acknowledged as a foremost authority in the area of First Amendment defense. He is also an expert on the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court, student rights and education. His work has appeared in the Villiage Voice, New York Times, The New Republic, Commonweal, The Atlantic and The New Yorker, where he was a staff writer for more than 25 years.
Monday, June 29
Morning Session (9:00 a.m.)
THE VALUE OF THE EXCLUSIONARY RULE
Guest Speaker: Professor Thomas Ball, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
Congress, the News, and the Fate of the Republic:
Perspectives from a Recovering JournalistGuest Speaker: Jay Branegan, Senior Professional Staff Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C.
Jay Branegan worked for 28 years as a newspaper reporter and TIME magazine correspondent, based in Chicago, Washington, East Asia and Europe. He covered the White House for TIME during the latter part of the Clinton Administration and the State Department during the early months of the Bush Administration. When he was with the Chicago Tribune, Mr. Branegan shared a Pulitzer Prize for a series on hospital abuse and fraud. Mr. Branegan has taught journalism at Georgetown and at the Washington program of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He is currently a Senior Professional Staff Member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and works closely with Senator Richard (“Dick”) G. Lugar (R-Ind.), who is the Republican leader of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Branegan recently traveled to West Africa and China on behalf of the Committee and will travel soon to Central America to evaluate U.S. foreign aid programs.
Wednesday, July 2
afternoon Session (2:30 a.m.)
THE LIFE AND DEATH STRUGGLE FOR OUR CONSTITUTION
Guest Speaker: Bruce Fein, Constitutional Attorney and Consultant with The Lichfield Group, Washington, D.C.
Bruce Fein commands unsurpassed educational skills, experience and erudition in the halls of both national and international leadership. He attended Swarthmore and the University of California, Berkeley, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with honors. He also graduated from Harvard Law School with honors. Bruce has been Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States, an adjunct scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, a resident scholar at the Heritage Foundation, a lecturer at the Brookings Institute and an adjunct professor at George Washington University. He has also been executive editor of World Intelligence Review, a periodical devoted to national security and intelligence issues. He has spoken before countless student audiences, read thousands of books, classical and otherwise, and volunteered endless hours teaching children of all ages.
Bruce has authored several volumes on the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Constitution and international law. He has assisted two dozen countries in constitutional revision and advised over twenty heads of state and presidents of foreign nations, plus four American presidents, members of Congress, the House of Commons and the House of Lords on matters ranging from education, law, telecommunications and cable regulation to sugar quotas, oil and gas pipelines and human rights. He has drafted speeches and correspondence for world leaders to present before national legislative bodies, the United Nations and regional and bilateral summits.
He writes a weekly column for The Washington Times devoted to legal and international affairs, guest columns for numerous other newspapers and articles for professional and lay journals. He is invited to testify regularly before Congress, state legislators and administrative agencies by both Democrats and Republicans. He appears regularly on national broadcast, cable and radio programs as an expert in education, foreign affairs, international and constitutional law, telecommunications, terrorism, national security and related subjects.
Bruce is founding partner of the law firm Fein & Fein. He resides in Virginia with his wife and three children.
Monday, July 6
Morning Session (9:00 a.m.)
WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF THE SUPREME COURT?
Guest Speaker: Dahlia Lithwick, contributing editor at Newsweek and senior editor at Slate.
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
AMERICANS UNITED FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: A PERSPECTIVE
Guest Speaker: Rob Boston, Assistant Director of Communications, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Washington, D.C.
Rob Boston is assistant director of Communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the assistant editor of AU’s monthly magazine, Church & State. He joined the organization in 1987 and is the author of three books: Close Encounters with the Religious Right: Journeys into the Twilight Zone of Religion and Politics (Prometheus Books, 2000); The Most Dangerous Man in America? Pat Robertson and the Rise of the Christian Coalition (Prometheus, 1996); and Why the Religious Right Is Wrong About Separation of Church and State (Prometheus Books, 1993; second edition, 2003).
Wednesday, July 8
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
The Dark REALITIES OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Guest Speaker: Steven Benjamin, Attorney, Benjamin and Desportes, Richmond, VA
Steven D. Benjamin is a lawyer with Benjamin & DesPortes, a Richmond law firm that limits its practice to the representation of individuals involved with the criminal justice system. He serves as Special Counsel to the Virginia Senate Courts of Justice Committee (2001-present) and to the Virginia State Crime Commission (2002-present). He is a member of the Virginia Forensic Science Board and the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission. He has served on numerous state legislative committees, including the DNA Task Force that successfully pioneered Virginia’s Writs of Actual Innocence for Biological and Non-Biological Evidence. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a past-President of the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
He is a frequent CLE lecturer on criminal justice and defense issues and has given presentations nationally and throughout Virginia, including presentations to the American Bar Association, American Academy of Forensic Sciences, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Virginia State Bar, Virginia Bar Association, Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, Commonwealth’s Attorneys’ Institute and the Judicial Conference of Virginia.
As the Legal Analyst for the Richmond NBC Affiliate, he has provided public education analyses of current legal topics on weekly basis for five years. He has also appeared on The NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, NBC Dateline, CNN, Fox Morning News, The O’Reilly Factor, MSNBC, and National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition.”
In 1996, Mr. Benjamin was counsel in Virginia’s landmark case on the appointment of experts for indigent defense, Husske v. Commonwealth. In 1998, he argued through the trial courts and on appeal that Virginia’s mandatory fee caps on compensation for court-appointed counsel deprive indigent defendants of conflict-free representation. In 2001, he won the exoneration and release of Jeff Cox, a man who served 11 years of a life sentence for a crime he did not commit. In 2003, he argued for the free speech rights of public housing residents in the United States Supreme Court. In 2003, he was presented the Virginia State Bar’s Lewis F. Powell Pro Bono Award. In 2004, he was elected a Fellow to the American Board of Criminal Lawyers.
Friday, July 10
Morning Session (9:00 a.m.)
LITIGATING IN THE PUBLIC INTERESTS
Guest Speaker: Stephen Neuberger, Esq., The Neuberger Firm, Wilmington, Delaware
Stephen J. Neuberger is a partner in The Neuberger Firm in Wilmington, Delaware, where he practices civil rights law with an emphasis on First Amendment public employee retaliation litigation. Over the past year, he has lectured on First Amendment free speech and petition clause issues in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. He participated in Rutherford’s Summer Internship Program in the summer of 1998 and later worked in Rutherford’s legal department during the summer of 1999. He received a B.A. in history from the University of Delaware in 2000 and a J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law in 2003.
Monday, July 13
Morning session (11:30 A.m.)
Preparing for 2012 Through Truth and Reconciliation
Guest Speaker: Tom Hansen
Tom Hansen is a speaker and performer (Dr. Tom’s Far Out Folk Songs)
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
CIVIL LIBERTIES: THE ACLU PERSPECTIVE
Guest Speaker: Kent Willis, VA State Director, American Civil Liberties Union
Kent Willis is the Executive Director for the Virginia Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He received his A.B. in Philosophy from the College of William and Mary. After working as an environmental activist with the Virginia Bay Committee and as an advocate for disabled persons with Goodwill Industries of Richmond, he was hired by Housing Opportunities Made Equal, or HOME, a non-profit Richmond group set up to fight racial discrimination in housing, where he became the executive director. While at HOME, Kent was elected to the board of directors of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing, the nation’s leading fair housing organization. He served as the spokesperson for fair housing groups across the nation during the 1986 congressional hearings on new funding programs for promoting fair housing and the 1987 hearings on revisions to the federal fair housing law. After nearly five years as executive director of HOME, Kent became the associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and was promoted to executive director in early 1989. For the last 17 years, he has used litigation and legislative initiatives to promote freedom of speech, assembly, and religion, separation of church and state, equal rights for minorities, due process in criminal proceedings, privacy rights, fair voting practices and other civil rights and liberties mandated by the U.S. Constitution.
As the principal spokesperson for the ACLU of Virginia, Kent gives approximately 250 radio, television and newspaper interviews each year. He has appeared numerous times on National Pubic Radio and has also appeared on NBC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC. He also speaks regularly to student and civic groups and has written numerous op-eds for Virginia papers, mostly on First Amendment issues. He and his wife, Dr. Sheila Crowley,who is president of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition in Washington, D.C., live in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Friday, July 17
Afternoon Session (2:00)
The Christian Right: Dead or Still Kicking?
Guest Speaker: Frank Schaeffer
Frank Schaeffer is the author of the New York Times bestseller Keeping Faith and the memoir Crazy for God,
Monday, July 20
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
DEATH PENALTY POLICY IN VIRGINIA
Guest Speaker: Beth Panilaitis, Director, Virginians Against the Death Penalty, Richmond, VA
Wednesday, July 22
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER'S CHALLENGE TO US IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Guest Speaker: Charles Marsh, UVA Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Charlottesville, VA
Wednesday, July 24
Morning Session (10:00 a.m.)
FREE SPEECH: MCCOMB
Guest Speaker: James Knicely, Attorney, Knicely & Associates, Williamsburg, VA, Special Counsel for The Rutherford Institute
James J. Knicely has represented numerous individuals in Free Speech cases vindicating the rights of picketers, demonstrators and street preachers in various public forums. As a litigator, he has been successful in suing the City of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Reds, World Cup Soccer and RFK Stadium in cases involving the display of political and religious signs at major sporting events and the NCAA in its attempt to ban “end-zone” prayer by athletes. He has also succeeded in cases against the Commonwealth of Virginia and its political subdivisions involving governmental censorship of vanity license plates and library display cases and the Free Exercise rights of Native Americans. He also has experience in cases involving claims of Establishment of Religion. Knicely is a graduate of Harvard Law School and a former clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. He serves as Special Counsel to The Rutherford Institute and maintains a private practice in Williamsburg, Virginia, in business, litigation and real estate matters. He is a frequent speaker at continuing legal education courses for lawyers and law students on the First Amendment and has written law review articles on Free Exercise and Establishment of Religion. He has also authored more than twenty amicus curiae briefs in cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Afternoon Session (1:00)
ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE
Guest Speaker: James Knicely
Monday, July 27
Morning Session (9:00 a.m.)
ADKINS V. RUMSFELD: FREE SPEECH AND ISSUES OF PUBLIC CONCERN
MCSALLY V. RUMSFELD: FREEDOM OF RELIGION IN THE ARMED SERVICES
MCCOMB V. CREHANGuest Speaker: Randal Shaheen, Arnold & Porter, Washington, D.C., Affiliate Attorney for The Rutherford Institute
Randall Shaheen received his law degree from Harvard Law School and his B.A. from Bucknell University. He is currently counsel with the law firm of Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., where he specializes in antitrust and trade regulation issues. He is also an adjunct professor at George Washington University, where he teaches Constitutional Law. Randy has worked with The Rutherford Institute for many years on cases ranging from right to life issues to free exercise and issues involving personal liberties. His two most recent efforts with Rutherford involved a 12-year-old girl who was arrested for eating a french fry in a metro station and the highest ranking U.S. Air Force female fighter pilot who successfully challenged a military policy requiring female service personnel in Saudi Arabia to wear traditional Muslim dress when off base. When not practicing law, Randy and his wife try to maintain order in a household of four young kids.
Afternoon Session (1:00 p.m.)
President Obama and Civil Liberties: Has He Kept His Promises?
Guest Speaker: Virginia Sloan, Founder and President, The Constitution Project, Washington, D.C.
Virginia E. Sloan founded the Constitution Project in 1997 and is now its President. She also serves on its Board of Directors and Executive Committee and directs its Death Penalty, Constitutional Amendments, Separation of Powers and Right to Counsel Initiatives. Ms. Sloan previously served as Executive Director of the Task Force on Gender, Race and Ethnic Bias of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. For 14 years, she was a counsel to the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, including several years as counsel to the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights. She was also a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge William Matthew Byrne and a Deputy Federal Public Defender in Los Angeles.
Ms. Sloan serves as a special counsel to the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities. She also served as chair of the Section’s Criminal Justice Committee, which co-sponsored the successful ABA resolution in favor of a death penalty moratorium, and on the ABA Committee on Court Funding. Ms. Sloan is a member of the Board of Directors of the Southern Center for Human Rights and of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, as well as the Honorary Board of the Washington Council of Lawyers. She is a member of the ABA Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation Project’s Assessments Project Advisory Board and a past member of the Executive Committee of the ACLU of the National Capital Area. Information about the Constitution Project is available at constitutionproject.org.