Robert H. Jackson Center: A Conference on Mezei
On June 23, 2017, the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York, hosted a conference, “How ‘Far Gone’ Are We Now?: Immigration, Security & American Values, from Justice Jackson’s Time to Our Own.”
The conference title asked a timely question. It incorporates a phrase from this concluding passage of Justice Jackson’s dissenting opinion in Shaughnessy, District Director of Immigration & Naturalization v. United States ex rel. Ignatz Mezei, a 1953 U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding as constitutional the broad statutory powers of the government to deport a non-citizen:
“Congress has ample power to determine whom we will admit to our shores and by what means it will effectuate its exclusion policy. The only limitation is that it may not do so by authorizing United States officers to take without due process of law the life, the liberty or the property of an alien who has come within our jurisdiction; and that means he must meet a fair hearing with fair notice of the charges. It is inconceivable to me that this measure of simple justice and fair dealing would menace the security of this country. No one can make me believe that we are that far gone.”
The conference video now is posted on YouTube, in the following eight segments:
Morning session lectures:
John Q. Barrett delivering the inaugural Alan Y. Cole Memorial Lecture, “Robert H. Jackson on Immigrants, Citizens, Power & Liberty”—click here
Lucas Guttentag, Professor of the Practice of Law, Stanford Law School, and Distinguished Senior Fellow & Lecturer, Yale Law School, and former Senior Counselor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and founder and former director ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, lecturing on “Sweeping Power & Shallow Rights: A Historical Perspective on Immigration Regulation and Constitutional Protections”—click here
Rick Su, Professor of Law, University at Buffalo School of Law, lecturing on “Sanctuary or Force Multiplier?: Local Involvement in Federal Immigration Enforcement”—click here.
Lunchtime keynote lecture: Theodore M. Shaw, Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law & Director of the Center for Civil Rights, University of North Carolina School of Law, and former Director-Counsel & President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., lecturing on “Uncharted Territory: The Existential Threat to the American Republic”—click here.
Afternoon session lectures:
Joyce White Vance, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law, University of Alabama School of Law, and former United States Attorney, Northern District of Alabama (2009-2017), delivering a lecture, “The Role of the Prosecutor in Protecting Civil Rights & Keeping Communities Safe”—click here
Margo Schlanger, Henry M. Butzel Professor of Law, University of Michigan, and former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, lecturing on “Civil Rights at the Border: National Security, Border Screening, & the Muslim Ban”—click here.
The entire morning session: welcoming remarks from Susan Moran Murphy, Jackson Center president & CEO; lectures by John Barrett, Lucas Guttentag, and Rick Su; audience-speaker Q&A; and me adjourning the session—click here.
The entire afternoon session: introductions; lectures by Joyce White Vance and Margo Schlanger; audience-speaker Q&A; and concluding remarks—click here.
Please view these important, expert, challenging discussions on topics that matter to each of us, and please share this information and these links widely.
KJ