UPDATE: War Powers addressed at University of St. Thomas Law

On October 7, students and community members gathered for the Journal of Law and Public Policy Forum on Presidential Powers at University of St. Thomas Law School.
A report from Tackling Torture at the Top and Colleen Rowley:

There was a protester presence the entire day, and two separate rallies during the day. In addition 10 or 11 T3 supporters went in to hear the symposium. Also inside were 30 Delahunty students apparently assigned to come, and around 30 students who looked in or stopped in passing, up in the balcony area.
The symposium was tightly controlled. At the door, attendees were told they couldn't even carry a single flyer in. All questions were handed in and only one question from T3 was selected (that only happened because of T3 insistence).
There were five speakers arguing that presidential powers override all other branches of government and one speaker opposed, but she was not given an opportunity to debate the other speakers. Three were solidly pro-presidential powers (Yoo, Delahunty, and Stokes-Paulsen), while one (Amar) claimed to be a proponent of “Unitary Executive” but only spoke on the President’s power to fire agency heads. He disagreed on some details with his former student, John Yoo. Amar was also one who admitted the war on terror is PERMANENT.
And then Kitrosser argued, in her separate half-hour, for some restraints on illegal actions of a President, while Schultz seemed to be against the extreme ramifications of the theory of presidential power. He confined his remarks to the political analysis of how Obama had not departed from Bush’s stances and therefore had not played to his own base of support which in Schultz’s view was not going to serve him well in the upcoming elections.
The issue of torture was not specifically mentioned in relation to executive branch power.

Do We have the Worst Police in the Midwest?

Does Minneapolis have the Worst police in the Midwest? What are the problems that the community can address without the police? When do we need them? What are they doing right?
Come discuss these issues, crucial to our community, at Walker Community Church on the evening of Thursday, October 14.
There's a lot more to do than discuss-- the small organization Communities United Against Police Brutality has successfully filed suits against the city before, changed ordinances, shamed officers, and mobilized community members for Cop Watch and much more. Find out how you can get involved, this Thursday!

Yoo & Delahunty to face the University of St. Thomas community

Journal of Law and Public Policy Forum on presidential powers to take place at University of St. Thomas Law, October 7 2010.
John Yoo, and Prof. Robert Delahunty, former lawyers for the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel, will be there as advocates for strong presidential powers. Heidi Kittrosser from the University of Minnesota and Akhil Amar of Yale University – one of this country’s leading law professors -- will support the position for limiting presidential powers. It should be a robust debate.

Anti-torture advocates like Tackling Torture at the Top will be there before the arrival of the registrants to the symposium with orange ribbons, flyers, and banners. People will boycott, people will attend, people will demonstrate outside & raise awareness, others will listen to the speakers and hopefully submit questions. There are speakers that do not support Yoo/Delahunty and there are other speakers that need to answer some pertinent questions.

At the lunch hour, 11:30 -12:30, and at 4:00, there will be demonstrations on the sidewalk outside the building. Everyone could wear an orange ribbon for torture awareness.

John Yoo speaks at 2:15 for 45 minutes. Some people may shun him by leaving the room, or standing
with their backs to him, or may choose to confront him with questions, or a sign. It is not choreographed.
Robert Delahunty is on the panel but not given a time to present an argument.

We need everyone, every body, every mind, to protest the presence of John Yoo and Robert Delahunty. Everyone is welcome to participate in demonstrating our disgust for Robert Delahunty and John Yoo's misuse of the law giving way to the crime of torture. And we believe that accountability is the only way that we can stop this despicable crime.


The use of enhanced presidential powers in time of war would allow the president to negate the laws and treaties that would protect the prisoners from abuse and torture. This is what happened by the memos written by John Yoo and Robert Delahunty. This goes against our laws and our morals. It would be good for UST to refresh their memory to their mission statement at the Law School:
The University of St. Thomas School of Law, as a Catholic law school, is dedicated to integrating faith and reason in the search for truth through a focus on morality and social justice.

On the same day, a different university in nearby St. Paul is making quite a different point of human rights issues.

My Sister's and Brother's Keeper?

Human Rights in the Era of Globalization

This year's theme of the 2010 Macalester International Roundtable is "My Sister's and Brother's Keeper?: Human Rights in the Era of Globalization."
The Macalester International Roundtable will take place on October 7, 8, & 9, 2010 at Macalester College 1600 Grand Avenue St. Paul, Minnesota
All sessions will be held in the John B. Davis Lecture Hall.

The discussions will revolve around such questions as:
What are the main human rights concerns of the 21st century?
What are the primary forces (and contexts) responsible for these issues, and why?
In what specific ways could human rights be advanced, and by whom?

Free and open to the public.