Lawyers vs. Bush Administration.

We are lawyers in the United States of America. As such, we have all taken an oath obligating us to defend the Constitution and the rule of law…. We believe the Bush administration has committed numerous offenses against the Constitution and may have violated federal laws…. Moreover, the administration has blatantly defied congressional subpoenas, obstructing constitutional oversight …. Thus, we call on House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy to launch hearings into the possibility that crimes have been committed by this administration in violation of the Constitution…. We call for the investigations to go where they must, including into the offices of the President and the Vice President. -- American Lawyers Defending the Constitution

Over one thousand lawyers – including former Governor Mario Cuomo and former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein – have signed onto the above statement demanding wide-ranging investigative hearings into unconstitutional and potentially criminal activity by the Bush administration.

In a conference call with reporters yesterday, Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and winner of the 2007 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship, said: "The majority of lawyers in this country understand that the Bush administration has really gone off the page of constitutional rights and off the page of fundamental rights, and is willing to push the Congress to restore those rights." Ratner said he was "dismayed" that a Democratic majority has failed "to push on key illegalities… the torture program, and now the destruction of the tapes involving the torture program; the warrantless wiretapping, the denial of habeas corpus, the secret sites/rendition program, special trials, and of course what we now know is the firing of US Attorneys scandal…. The minimal that absolutely is needed to get us back on the page of law is to have serious investigative hearings that go up the chain of command and figure out who is responsible for what."

Ratner noted that even with regard to the US attorney's investigations, where Congressional committees held Harriet Miers, Josh Bolten, and Karl Rove in contempt, leadership has failed to enforce these actions by bringing the resolutions to a vote. "Just announcing that investigations will be held and subpoenas will be issued is terribly insufficient unless Congress is willing to enforce the subpoenas by issuing contempt citations," Ratner said. "Congress has a constitutional duty to oversee the activities of the executive branch and our entire system of government is threatened when Congress simply folds before an obstinate executive. Issuing contempt citations against Bolten, Miers, and Rove should be Congress's first order of business in 2008."

Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild, discussed the administration's torture program violating three US-ratified treaties and the US torture statute; the illegal War in Iraq violating the US-ratified UN Charter as a war of aggression; and Attorney General Michael Mukasey's conflict of interest in overseeing investigations into the torture program and the destruction of the CIA interrogations tapes. More on the story.

The following individuals were the original signers of the "American Lawyers Defending the Constitution" statement to the U.S. House and Senate Judiciary Committees. Except where noted, all organizations listed are for identification purposes only:

Nan Aron
President, Alliance for Justice*

Marjorie Cohn
Professor of Law
Thomas Jefferson School of Law
President, National Lawyers Guild*

Bruce Fein
Chairman
American Freedom Agenda*

Eva Paterson
President
Equal Justice Society*

Michael Ratner
President
Center for Constitutional Rights*

Vince Warren
Executive Director
Center for Constitutional Rights*
* Sponsoring organizations

Richard L. Abel
Connell Professor of Law
University of California, Los Angeles

George J. Annas
Edward Utley Professor and Chair
Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights
Boston University School of Public Health, School of Law, & School of Medicine

Fran Ansley
Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus
University of Tennessee College of Law

Elvia R. Arriola
Associate Professor of Law
Northern Illinois University

Frank Askin
Professor of Law and Director, Constitutional Litigation Clinic
Rutgers Law School

Michael Avery
Professor of Law
Suffolk Law School
Past President, National Lawyers Guild

C. Edwin Baker
Nicholas F. Gallicchio Professor of Law and Professor of Communication
University of Pennsylvania Law School

Derrick Bell
Visiting Professor of Law
New York University School of Law

Barbara L. Bezdek
Professor of Law
University of Maryland School of Law

Maria Blanco
Executive Director
Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity
Berkeley School of Law, University of California

Carolyn P. Blum
Clinical Professor of Law Emeritus
Boalt Hall Law School, University of California, Berkeley

John C. Bonifaz
Founder, National Voting Rights Institute
Legal Director, Voter Action

Richard Boswell
Professor of Law
University of California, Hastings College of the Law

Cynthia Grant Bowman
Dorothea S. Clarke Professor of Law
Cornell Law School

Richard Oliver Brooks
Professor Emeritus
Vermont Law School

James Brosnahan
Trial Lawyer

Doug Cassel
Professor of Law and Director, Center for Civil and Human Rights
University of Notre Dame Law School

Erwin Chemerinsky
Alston & Bird Professor of Law and Political Science
Duke University

Kenneth D. Chestek
Clinical Associate Professor of Law
Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis

Carol Chomsky
Professor of Law
University of Minnesota Law School

Kenneth Cloke
Director, Center for Dispute Resolution
Santa Monica, CA

Luke W. Cole
Executive Director
Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment

Ruth Colker
Heck Faust Memorial Chair in Constitutional Law
Moritz College of Law
The Ohio State University

Lois Cox
Clinical Professor of Law
University of Iowa College of Law

The Honorable Mario Cuomo
Former Governor of New York

Constance de la Vega
Professor of Law and Academic Director of International Programs
University of San Francisco School of Law

Elizabeth de la Vega
Former federal prosecutor
Author, United States v. George Bush et. al

Pamela Edwards
Professor of Law
CUNY School of Law

Nancy Ehrenreich
Professor of Law
Sturm College of Law, University of Denver

Peter Erlinder
Professor of Const. Criminal Law
Wm. Mitchell College of Law
Past President, National Lawyers Guild

Anthony Paul Farley
Raymond and Ella Smith Distinguished Professor of Law
Albany Law School

Martin Flaherty
Leitner Family Professor of International Human Rights and Co-Director, Leitner Center for International Law & Justice
Fordham Law School

Sally Frank
Professor of Law
Drake University

Ann L. Iijima
Vice Dean for Academic Programs
William Mitchell College of Law

Marc Galanter
John & Rylla Bosshard Professor Emeritus of Law and South Asian Studies
University of Wisconsin Law School

Phoebe A. Haddon
Professor of Law
James Beasely School of Law, Temple University

Paul Harris
Charles Garry Professor of Law
New College Of California School of Law

Kathy Hessler
Professor of Law and Associate Director, Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Conflict and Dispute Resolution
Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Steven J. Heyman
Professor of Law
Chicago-Kent College of Law

Aziz Huq
Director, Liberty and National Security Project
Brennan Center for Justice

Eileen Kaufman
Professor of Law
Touro Law Center
Co-president, Society of American Law Teachers

Kevin Keenan
Executive Director
ACLU San Diego & Imperial Counties

Walter J. Kendall, III
Professor
The John Marshall Law School

Stephen Loffredo
Professor of Law
City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law

Gregory P. Magarian
Professor of Law
Villanova University School of Law

Tayyab Mahmud
Professor of Law
Seattle University School of Law
Co-president, Society of American Law Teachers

Wendy K. Mariner
Professor of Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights
Boston University School of Public Health

Vanessa Merton
Professor of Law
Pace University School of Law

Margaret Montoya
Professor of Law
University of New Mexico School of Law

Jennifer Moore
Professor of Law
University of New Mexico School of Law

Odeana R. Neal
Associate Professor
University of Baltimore School of Law

Kate O'Neill
Associate Professor
University of Washington School of Law

Angela Onwuachi-Willig
Professor of Law
University of Iowa College of Law

James Gray Pope
Professor of Law
Rutgers Law School

Kevin G. Powers
Rodgers, Powers & Schwartz LLP
Boston, MA

William P. Quigley
Professor of Law
Loyola University New Orleans

Jamin Raskin
Professor of Law and Director of the Law and Government Program
Washington College of Law at American University

Arlene Rivera Finkelstein
Professor of Legal Methods and Director, Public Interest Resource Center
Widener University School of Law

Ruthann Robson
Professor of Law & University Distinguished Professor
City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law

Naomi Roht-Arriaza
Professor of Law
University of California, Hastings College of the Law

Florence Wagman Roisman
William F. Harvey Professor of Law
Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis

David Rudovsky
Senior Fellow
University of Pennsylvania Law School

Liz Ryan Cole
Professor of Law and Director, SiP/ESW
Vermont Law School

Herman Schwartz
Professor of Law
Washington College of Law at American University

Judith A. Scott
General Counsel
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Peter M. Shane
Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law and Director, Project on Law and Democratic Development
Moritz College of Law
The Ohio State University

Steven Shiffrin
Charles Frank Reavis Sr. Professor of Law
Cornell Law School

Marjorie A. Silver
Professor of Law
Touro Law Center

John Strait
Associate Professor of Law
Seattle University School of Law

Jamienne S. Studley
President
Public Advocates Inc.

Lawrence Velvel
Dean
Massachusetts School of Law

Joan Vogel
Professor of Law
Vermont Law School

Peter Weiss
President
Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy
New York, NY