Democratic Members Of Senate
Judiciary Committee
Announce Witness List For Hearings
On Supreme Court Nominee Samuel Alito
WASHINGTON (Thursday, Jan. 5) –
Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday
announced their witness list for the upcoming hearings on the
Supreme Court nomination of Samuel Alito. The hearings, which begin
on Monday, Jan. 9th, will include a number of days of testimony by
Judge Alito as well as testimony from witness panels on the relevant
issues surrounding Judge Alito’s nomination.
Below is a list of Democratic witnesses confirmed to date,
consisting of distinguished constitutional and legal scholars,
national leaders and courageous Americans who represent many of the
vital issues facing the nation today including:
§
The scope of
presidential power and the judiciary’s role as a check and balance
on that power;
§
Judicial ethics and
the importance of clear and concise recusal policies;
§
Civil rights and
voting rights;
§
Women’s rights and
Americans’ right to privacy, as well as;
§
The importance of an
open government that serves the interests of the American people.
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Biographical Information For
Witnesses
Listed By Panel
PANEL ONE
Erwin Chemerinsky
Erwin Chemerinsky is the Alston & Bird Professor of Law and
Professor of Political Science at Duke University Law School.
Professor Chemerinsky joined the Duke faculty in July, 2004 after 21
years at the University of Southern California Law School, where he
was the Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal
Ethics, and Political Science. Professor Chemerinsky also taught
law at DePaul College of Law from 1980 to 1983. Prior to teaching
law, Professor Chemerinsky served as a trial attorney at the United
States Department of Justice, and at Dobrovir, Oakes & Gebhardt in
Washington, D.C. Mr. Chemerinsky has authored several books and
hundreds of law review articles. In April 2005, he was named by
Legal Affairs as one of “the top 20 legal thinkers in America.”
Professor Chemerinsky received a B.S. from Northwestern University
and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Michael J. Gerhardt
Michael Gerhardt is the Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professor of
Constitutional Law at the University of North Carolina School of
Law. Prior to joining the faculty of the Law School this summer,
Mr. Gerhardt taught for more than a decade at William & Mary Law
School. He is the author of several books, including the second
editions of The Federal Impeachment Process: A Constitutional and
Historical Analysis (University of Chicago Press) and The
Federal Appointments Process (Duke University Press). In 1993,
Mr. Gerhardt served as a special consultant to the White House on
the nomination of Stephen Breyer to the United States Supreme
Court. More recently, he testified before the Senate Rules and
Judiciary Committees on the constitutionality of the filibuster.
Professor Gerhardt received a B.A. from Yale University in 1978, an
M.Sc. from the London School of Economics and his J.D. from the
University of Chicago in 1982.
Samuel
Issacharoff
Samuel Issacharoff is the Bonnie and Richard Reiss
Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of
Law. He has authored several scholarly works that focus on voting
rights and civil procedure. Prior to joining NYU's faculty, he
taught at Columbia Law School and the University of Texas School of
Law. Professor Issacharoff received his B.A. from Binghamton
University in 1975 and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1983.
Goodwin Liu
Goodwin Liu is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University
of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall. His primary areas of expertise
are constitutional law, civil rights, the Supreme Court, and
education policy. He has published widely on these topics in law
reviews and general media. Before joining the Boalt faculty in 2003,
Professor Liu was an appellate litigator at O'Melveny & Myers in
Washington, D.C. He served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during the October 2000 term and for
Judge David Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
from 1998 to 1999. Professor Liu serves on the board of directors
of the ACLU of Northern California and the American Constitution
Society in Washington. Professor Liu is a Rhodes Scholar and
received his B.S. from Stanford University in 1991, an M.A. from
Oxford University in 1993 and his J.D. from Yale Law School in
1998.
Beth Nolan
Beth Nolan is partner in Crowell & Moring LLP’s Litigation
Group where she has a broad-based practice that includes a focus on
constitutional and public policy issues. Prior to joining the firm,
Ms. Nolan served in the White House as Counsel to the President from
1999-2001, where she was responsible for overseeing all legal
matters for President Clinton and the White House staff. She served
as Deputy Assistant Attorney General from 1996 to 1999 and Assistant
Attorney General-designate from 1997 to 1999 in the Office of Legal
Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice. She served in the White House
as Associate Counsel to the President from 1993 to 1995. Ms. Nolan
was a law clerk for the Honorable Collins J. Seitz of the United
States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She received he
undergraduate degree from Scripps College and a J.D. magna cum
laude from Georgetown in 1980.
Laurence H. Tribe
Laurence Tribe is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at
Harvard University and Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard
Law School. Throughout his professional career, Professor Tribe has
authored over 250 publications on many different subject areas of
American law and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. He is generally recognized as one of the
foremost constitutional law experts in the world, has helped write
the constitutions of several nations, and has argued before the U.S.
Supreme Court over thirty-three times. Professor Tribe served as
law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in the 1967 Term
and is the author, among many other books, of American
Constitutional Law, the most frequently cited textbook in that
field. Professor Tribe received an A.B. summa cum laude from
Harvard College in 1962, a J.D. from Harvard Law School magna cum
laude in 1966, and numerous honorary degrees since that time.
PANEL TWO
The Hon. Charles A. Gonzalez (D-TX)
Representative Gonzalez was first elected to the United States House
of Representatives in November of 1998. He is the Representative for
the 20th District of Texas. He is a member of the House Committee
on Energy and Commerce. Since 1999,
Congressman Gonzalez has served as a Texas Regional Whip for the
Democratic Caucus and as Chair of the Hispanic Caucus Civil Rights
Task Force. In the 107th Congress, the Congressman developed and was
selected to Chair the Hispanic Judiciary Initiative for the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Reginald M. Turner, Jr.
In 2004, Reginald Turner was elected as President of the
National Bar Association (NBA). Due to strong nationwide support,
Turner ran unopposed in what is typically a vigorously contested
election. Aside from serving President of the NBA, he is also a
partner in the Detroit law firm Clark Hill and has practiced labor
and employment law and governmental relations for over 15 years.
Moreover, Mr. Turner has served as President of the Michigan State
Bar association, as a White House Fellow, as a Special Assistant to
the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and as a Judicial
Law Clerk to the Hon. Dennis W. Archer of the Michigan State Supreme
Court. Aside from his professional obligations, Mr. Turner is very
active in numerous public services and in civic and charitable
organizations. Mr. Turner received a B.S. from Wayne State
University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School
PANEL THREE
Fred Gray
Fred Gray is senior partner at Gray, Langford, Sapp,
McGowan, Gray & Nathanson. He is a veteran civil rights attorney
whose legal career began in the midst of America's modern day civil
rights movement. Mr. Gray began his legal career as a solo
practitioner shortly after law school. At age twenty-four, he
represented Rosa Parks, who had refused to give up her seat to a
white man on a city bus; the action that initiated the Montgomery
Bus Boycott. He was also Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s first civil
rights lawyer. In 2004, Fred D. Gray received the ABA Thurgood
Marshall Award for his remarkable contributions to the advancement
of civil rights. Mr. Gray is a graduate of the Nashville Christian
Institute, Alabama State University and Case Western Reserve.
Kate Michelman
Before stepping down in 2004, Kate Michelman served as
president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action
League (NARAL) Pro-Choice America for over 18 years. Prior to
joining NARAL in 1985, Ms. Michelman was executive director of
Planned Parenthood in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where she expanded
the range of reproductive health services available in the area. She
also trained medical students and residents in child development as
a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at
Pennsylvania State University School of Medicine.
Ronald S.
Sullivan, Jr.
Ronald Sullivan Jr. is an Associate Clinical Professor of
Law and Supervising Attorney at Yale Law School. His areas of
expertise include criminal law, criminal procedure, and legal
ethics. After graduating from law school, Professor Sullivan spent a
year in Nairobi, Kenya as a Visiting Attorney for the Law Society of
Kenya. In that capacity, he sat on a committee charged with
drafting a new constitution for Kenya. Professor Sullivan has also
served as a staff attorney, general counsel, and director of the
Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS). He
received a B.A. from Morehouse College in 1989 and a J.D. from
Harvard in 1994.
PANEL FOUR
Amanda Frost
Amanda Frost is an Assistant
Professor of Law at American University’s Washington College of
Law. Her areas of specialization include Civil Procedure and the
Federal Courts. She has published several law review articles on
these topics. As a staff attorney at Public Citizen Litigation
Group, Professor Frost litigated cases before the U.S. Supreme
Court, federal courts of appeals, federal district courts, and state
supreme courts. She has also served as a consultant to the Shanghai
Municipal Government in drafting open government legislation and was
a Panelist at the 2005 American Bar Association’s Section of
Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice conference entitled:
Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Institute; Making Agency
Law Through Rulemaking. Professor Frost received an A.B. from
Harvard College in 1993 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1997.
John G.S. Flym
John G.S. Flym recently retired as a
professor of Law at Northeastern University School of Law.
Professor Flym taught Professional Responsibility and Advanced
Criminal Procedure, and directs the Criminal Advocacy Clinic.
Professor Flym served as counsel to Ms. Shantee Maharaj, the
plaintiff in the 2002 case where Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. ruled in
favor of the Vanguard mutual fund company at a time when he owned
more than $390,000 in Vanguard funds. Judge Alito ruled in the case
after he had made a pledge to the Senate in 1990 during his
confirmation process that he would recuse himself from cases
involving Vanguard. Professor Flym received a B.S. from Columbia
University in 1961 and an LLB from Harvard.
Stephen R. Dujack
Stephen R. Dujack is the editor of an
environmental magazine in Washington and a freelance writer. Mr.
Dujack has appeared many times as a guest columnist in publications
throughout the country. Some of his recent writings have covered
Judge Samuel Alito’s membership in the
Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP). Formed in 1972, CAP has
been publicly criticized for its policies opposing Princeton's
decision to admit women and minorities. When applying for a job in
the Reagan/Meese Justice Department in 1985, Judge Alito touted his
membership in the conservative group. CAP’s positions and tactics
were criticized in the years following its founding by other alumni,
including former Senator Bill Bradley and Senator Bill Frist, who is
now the Republican Majority Leader. Mr.
Dujack, a 1976 graduate of Princeton, first wrote about CAP for the
Princeton Alumni Weekly in the 1980s and then again in 2005.
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