November 28, 2007 (REVISED December 3, 2007) Law Library of Congress To Host Dec. 5 Panel Discussion With Experts On "Extraordinary Rendition" and the Constitution

After 9/11, the Bush administration engaged in what is called “extraordinary rendition”— the transfer of suspected terrorists to countries known to employ harsh interrogation techniques that may rise to the level of torture. The impact of these policies on constitutional principles is the subject of a panel discussion to be held at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 5 in the West Dining Room of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Law Library, the program is free and open to the public. No tickets are required. The topic is the concept of “extraordinary rendition” in terms of presidential power and congressional checks. Congress has held hearings on this topic during the past year. The panel will also examine the role of the judiciary in the cases of Khaled El-Masri and Maher Arar. Chairing and participating on the panel will be Louis Fisher, a constitutional law specialist in the Law Library. From 1970 to March 2006, Fisher worked in the Congressional Research Service, where he was senior specialist in separation of powers. He is the author of “Presidential War Power” (2d ed. 2004), “In the Name of National Security: Unchecked Presidential Power and the ‘Reynolds Case’” (2006), “American Constitutional Law” (with David Gray Adler, 7th ed. 2007) and “Constitutional Conflicts between Congress and the President” (5th ed. 2007). Heather Sawyer is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Chicago Law School. She has taught at Northwestern Law School, Loyola University and the Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to joining the Federal Legislation Clinic at Georgetown, she was senior counsel for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund at its Midwest office. Currently she is counsel with the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution. Daniel Huff is a graduate of the University of Toronto and Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar. He was an associate at McKinsey & Co. before coming to the Senate Judiciary Committee as Crime and Oversight counsel. He is the author of a recent law review article on the confrontation clause in the Nebraska Law Review and handles a variety of national security issues for the committee’s minority staff. The Law Library of Congress is celebrating the 175th anniversary of its founding through legislation enacted on July 14, 1832. Today the Law Library’s collection exceeds 2.5 million volumes. For more information about the Law Library, visit the Web site at www.loc.gov/law.html.