Constitutional Law

Progressives Promote Policies For New Administration

Progressive organizations, including this one, are presenting ideas for the forthcoming administration on an array of public policy matters. The Center for Constitutional Rights is the latest group to launch a project devoted to encouraging the new administration to undue rafts of policy from the Bush administration. “100 Days to Restore the Constitution: Policy White Papers,” by CCR “focuses on the harm done by previous administrations and the hopes we have for making the country a better place for all.” The first White Paper, dubbed “The Right to Dissent” examines the “attacks upon and criminalization of dissent, from surveillance of activists to the federalization of local law enforcement, to the labeling of activists as ‘terrorists.’ It presents a vision for the First 100 Days of the next President’s administration that repudiates such attacks and upholds the First Amendment and our human rights.” The paper is available here.

The Center for American Progress Action Fund and the New Democracy Project released “Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President.” Much of the blueprint, which touches upon economic, domestic and national security policy, is available on CAPAF’s Web site. The Constitution Project has coordinated a program offering a “catalogue” that “includes recommendations drawn from the shared knowledge and experience of a broad coalition of groups devoted to exploring the intersection of civil liberties and national security.” The groups’ recommendations are available here.

The ACLU’s project, “Actions For Restoring America: How to Begin Repairing the Damage to Freedom in America After Bush,” offers a list of “actions that the new president should take in order to decisively signal a restoration of American values and a rejection of the shameful policies of the past eight years.” The ACLU’s list of recommendations can be downloaded here.

And ACS released a broad package of proposals for reforming law and justice policies. The proposals, by a number of experts in the field range from restoring integrity to the Department of Justice to bolstering the work of regulatory agenices. The ideas and proposals are available here.  

Full post as published by ACS Blog on December 16, 2008 (boomark / email).