Category: Testimony

Congress, Testimony

Bobby Unser and the Alleged Abuses of Park Rangers: Testimony in the House of Representatives

TESTIMONY OF PROFESSOR JONATHAN TURLEY
PROFESSOR OF LAW
DIRECTOR OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW ADVOCACY CENTER
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL
WASHINGTON, D.C.
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCIAL AND ADMINISTRATM LAW
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 7, 1998

Mr. Chairman, members of the Subcommittee, I appreciate the
opportunity to speak with you today. The subject of this hearing
is enormously important to many individuals, communities and
agencies in this country. I will not be able to do justice to the
myriad of issues raised by this hearing in my short appearance
before the Subcommittee. I was invited to appear before this
Subcommittee only two days ago while out of town on litigation.
Nonetheless, I felt strongly that some issues should be raised
during the hearing, albeit in an abbreviated form. Mr. Chairman,
with the permission of the Subcommittee, I would like to submit
my complete written statement into the record and to submit a
supplemental statement at a later date. Continue reading “Bobby Unser and the Alleged Abuses of Park Rangers: Testimony in the House of Representatives” →

Congress, Constitutional Law, Justice, Military, Testimony

Testimony in Senate Intelligence Committee on Abuses By Naval Intelligence and the Daniel King Case

PREPARED STATEMENT OF
JONATHAN TURLEY
LEAD DEFENSE COUNSELFOR PETTY OFFICER DANIEL M. KING

SHAPIRO PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC INTEREST LAW
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, members of the Subcommittee, my name is Jonathan Turley. I currently represent Petty Officer Daniel M. King and I served as the lead defense counsel for Petty Officer King during his prosecution for alleged espionage. I am also a professor at George Washington University Law School where I hold the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law.

I greatly appreciate your invitation to discuss the King case. As a defense attorney and an academic in the national security field,1 I have never encountered a more troubling case. My co-counsel and I were formally invited to testify late last week and have attempted to assemble a comprehensive presentation of the facts in this case over the weekend. Each of our statements today will isolate different aspects of these facts. Like my colleagues, I wish to associate myself with their formal statements as part of our unified presentation. After discussing the charges and basic evidence in the case, my comments will focus on the areas previously identified by the Committee as the subject of today’s hearing. LT Matthew Freedus will then offer a detailed presentation of the facts in this case and the course of the investigation and prosecution. LT Robert Bailey will then detail the specific violations and abuses that have been identified and made part of the record. We understand that your time is limited and, with the consent of the Committee, we have submitted three formal statements. I apologize for the length but we find ourselves in the same position as Blaise Pascal when he apologized for the length of a letter because he lacked the time to write it shorter.2 Continue reading “Testimony in Senate Intelligence Committee on Abuses By Naval Intelligence and the Daniel King Case” →

Congress, Constitutional Law, Media, Politics, Testimony

Press Freedom and the War on Terrorism: Testimony in the House Intelligence Committee

Statement for the Record
Jonathan Turley
J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law
George Washington University Law School

May 26, 2006

Before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
United States House of Representatives

I.
INTRODUCTION

Chairman Hoekstra, Representative Harman, members of the Select Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify on the role and responsibility of journalists in covering classified subjects.
The subject of today’s hearing carries particular significance for me as someone who regularly works in both the law and the media. On the legal side, I hold the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at George Washington University where I teach relevant subjects that range from constitutional law to defamation to criminal procedure. In addition to writing on national security subjects as an academic, I have served as counsel in a variety of national security and espionage cases, including as lead counsel in the current terrorism case United States v. Al-Timimi. My litigation background includes cases that have dealt with attorney and journalistic privileges as well as executive privilege and the military and state secrets privilege. Due to my work in cases handling classified material, I have held a clearance since the 1980s.
On the media side, I have worked as a legal commentator for roughly two decades. I am a member of the USA Today Board of Contributors and write regularly for various newspapers, including The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and other publications. I have also had four stints under contract with NBC and CBS news and continue to appear as a legal analyst regularly on various broadcast and cable programs.
Many lawyers and journalists have become increasingly alarmed by the erosion of protections for the media in this country. While we often refer to our country as the cradle of press freedom, it is not true that the United States currently represents the high water mark for journalistic rights and privileges. Despite our great tradition of a free press and our extensive media industry, other nations now extend greater protections to their reporters and recent coercive measures against reporters have made the United States an area of considerable concern for international organizations.
The recent controversy over press freedom comes at a time when we have never been more dependent on the Fourth Estate to challenge and check the government’s otherwise unbridled authority. In the last few years, we have faced one of the most serious constitutional crises in our history. President Bush has claimed the authority to violate or to circumvent federal law when he deems it to be in the nation’s interest. There continues to be a raging debate over the President’s authority to order warrantless domestic surveillance and other controversial (and potentially criminal) operations. These are controversies that the Administration obviously would have preferred to avoid. Much anger has been directed at the media and there have been calls for new penalties and prosecutions for reporters and their sources. Continue reading “Press Freedom and the War on Terrorism: Testimony in the House Intelligence Committee” →

Congress, Politics, Testimony

D.C. Vote in Congress: House Judiciary Committee

STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD
JONATHAN TURLEY
SHAPIRO PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC INTEREST LAW
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL

LEGISLATIVE HEARING ON H.R. 5388,
THE “DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FAIR AND EQUAL HOUSE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 2006”

SEPTEMBER 14, 2006

SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

I.
INTRODUCTION

Chairman Chabot, Ranking Member Nadler, members of the Subcommittee, it is an honor to appear before you today to discuss the important question of the representational status of the District of Columbia in Congress. I expect that everyone here today would agree that the current non-voting status of the District is fundamentally at odds with the principles and traditions of our constitutional system. As Justice Black stated in Wesberry v. Sanders: “No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined.” Continue reading “D.C. Vote in Congress: House Judiciary Committee” →

Congress, Constitutional Law, Politics, Testimony

Testimony: D.C. Vote in Congress (Senate Judiciary Committee)

STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD
JONATHAN TURLEY
SHAPIRO PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC INTEREST LAW
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL

ENDING TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION:
THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF S. 1257

MAY 23, 2007

COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
THE UNITED STATES SENATE

I.
INTRODUCTION

Chairman Feingold, Senator Specter, members of the Committee, it is an honor to appear before you today to discuss the important question of the representational status of the District of Columbia in Congress. At the outset, I believe that it is important for people of good faith to acknowledge that this is not a debate between people who want District residents to have the vote and those who do not. I expect that everyone here today would agree that the current non-voting status of the District is fundamentally at odds with the principles and traditions of our constitutional system. As Justice Black stated in Wesberry v. Sanders: “No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined.”

Today, we are all seeking a way to address the glaring denial of basic rights to the citizens of our Capitol City. Clearly, this is a matter that is heavily laden with passions from decades of disenfranchisement. However, there is a tendency to personalize the barriers to such representation and to ignore any countervailing evidence in the constitutional debates. In the last Senate hearing, my friend Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton told Senators that if they are going to vote against this bill, “do not to blame the Framers blame Jonathan Turley.” Del. Norton went further to argue that it was “slander” to claim that the Framers intended to leave District residents without their own representatives in Congress. In reality, I have long argued for full representation for the District and abhor the status of its residents. As for claims of slandering the Framers, truth remains an absolute defense to defamation and the record in this case could not be more clear as to the intentions of the Framers. While some may view it as obnoxious (and indeed some at the time held the same view), the Framers most certainly did understand the implications of creating a federal enclave represented by Congress as a whole.

Unlike many issues before Congress, there has always been a disagreement about the means rather than the ends of full representation for the District residents. Regrettably, I believe that S. 1257 is the wrong means. Despite the best of motivations, the bill is fundamentally flawed on a constitutional level and would only serve to needlessly delay true reform for District residents. Indeed, considerable expense would likely come from an inevitable and likely successful legal challenge — all for a bill that would ultimately achieve only partial representational status. The effort to fashion this as a civil rights measure ignores the fact that it confers only partial representation without any guarantee that it will continue in the future. It is the equivalent of allowing Rosa Parks to move halfway to the front of the bus in the name of progress. District residents deserve full representation and, while this bill would not offer such reform, there are alternatives, including a three-phased proposal that I have advocated in the past. Continue reading “Testimony: D.C. Vote in Congress (Senate Judiciary Committee)” →