Panel focuses on Bill of Rights in times of crisis

A panel discussion Saturday, Oct. 13, at the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters’ Bill of Rights forum in Milwaukee will focus on civil liberties in a nation at war.

Panelists include: John Nichols, editorial page editor of The Capital Times in Madison and The Nation’s Washington correspondent; Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, general counsel for the University of Wisconsin System and a former general counsel for the CIA; Marquette University history professor Athan Theoharis, a biographer of J. Edgar Hoover; and Gregory Nojeim, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington national office and chief legislative council.

Nojeim’s responsibilities include defending and promoting civil liberties in the areas of national security, immigration, and database privacy. He has long fought against “aviation profiling,” a method of selecting certain passengers for increased security.

The panel will be moderated by Dave Berkman, host of Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Media Talk,” a Shepherd Express columnist (“Media Musings”) and a retired professor of mass communication at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The panel caps off the Wisconsin Academy’s two-day forum, “Private Rights, Public Good: The Bill of Rights in Our Lives,” which will examine freedom of speech, search and seizure, the Drug War, zero tolerance and private property rights. The forum takes place at the Midwest Express Center in Milwaukee Oct. 12-13. The panel runs from 9:45 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

U.S. Senator Russ Feingold; state Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson; state Attorney General James Doyle, U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, and Wall Street Journal editor John Fund will be among the forum’s speakers

Other presenters include Nicholas Chiarkas, Wisconsin state public defender; E. Michael McCann, Milwaukee County district attorney; John P. Kaminski, director, Center for the Study of the American Constitution; Alicia Young, attorney, ACLU Drug Policy Litigation Project; and William Goodman, legal director, Center for Constitutional Rights.

People attending the forum will have the opportunity to learn from and interact with these speakers and others from a wide range of professions associated with the Bill of Rights, including legal scholars, attorneys, judges, community activists and law enforcement officials. The forum will bring this centuries-old document to life by highlighting how the Bill of Rights affects people on a daily basis.

“Now more than ever, we depend on the Bill of Rights to safeguard our civil liberties in a world that makes us fear for our safety and security,” notes Wisconsin Academy conference director Michael Goodman. “Since its inception, the Bill of Rights has been a yardstick for how we as Americans measure our freedoms and responsibilities. Although it is the cornerstone of the rights we depend on, we seldom take time to explore and appreciate how it affects us from a range of perspectives.”

Scholarships and reduced rates are available on request. Department of Public Instruction clock hours and continuing legal education credits are available for educators and attorneys. For registration materials, lodging information and more forum content, visit the forum Web site.

For more information, call Michael Goodman, conference director, Wisconsin Academy, (608) 263-1692, ext. 15.

The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters is an independent, nonprofit membership organization founded in 1870 with the mission of gathering and sharing knowledge in the sciences and humanities for the benefit of the people of Wisconsin. It is funded by grants, private endowments, and its members.