The ACLU-Connecticut 2006 Civil Liberties Conference, held at the Quinnipiac University Law School, attracted an audience of about 150. Many came to see and support Roger Vann in his new role as the executive director of the Connecticut Office of the organization. He did not disappoint those who have been with him through his local and national stints with NAACP and Amistad America. Most were attracted by the keynote address, “National Security and Civil Liberties,” presented by Ann Beeson. As the national ACLU associate legal director, she became best loved in our state through her work on the most recent Patriot Act assault on out librarians. Most of her time, these days, is spent preparing for Supreme Court cases involving national security issues, human rights, free speech and racial justice. This pursuit has led to a fascinating narrative of witnesses and litigants from all over the world, including Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo.
The afternoon program was staged in panels, the first of which dealt with Civil Rights.
Panelist Anne Stanback (executive director of Love Makes A Family) outlined the quest for legislation enabling marriage for same-sex couples and the unacceptability of “separate but equal” compromise solutions. Shelley White, the litigation director for New Haven Legal Assistance, discussed fair housing and the rights of the poor. Cindy Slane, commissioner of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, Joyce Hamilton-Henry, executive director of Democracy Works, and Michael Boyle, an immigration attorney, rounded out that group and added their dimensions of womens’ rights and reproductive freedom, voting rights and immigrants’ rights to the very broad topic.
The second panel on Criminal Justice succeeded in holding the audience (pun intended!). When defense attorney Norman Pattis described the tactics for eliciting confessions and plea bargains, he augmented support for legislation to require that all interrogations and subsequent interviews with a criminal defendant be video recorded. Recent exonerations and moral/ethical arguments were used by Robert Nave, executive Ddirector of CT Network to Abolish the Death Penalty. Lorenzo Jones, of A Better Way Foundation, addressed the racial disparity of crack cocaine vs powdered cocaine, i.e. urban vs suburban, i.e. poor vs rich, justice. His testimony was well informed and experienced; his advice in terms of the necessity to replace the economic underpinnings of the drug trade was new to most.
Former Village Voice journalist turned book author, Cynthia Carr, closed the program with remarks and readings from her book, Our Town: A Heartland Lynching, A Haunted Town and The Hidden History of White America. She described her interviews and research with a palpable combination of pain and fascination; it was clear that she did not attain absolution through the journey. She still struggles with this difficult legacy.
It was a successful conference, evidenced by people who came for the keynote and stayed for four more hours and the exchange of business cards and e‑mail addresses after each forum. Some may take issue with segments of the ACLU agenda, but no one can deny that it is — ¬¶.. “LL FOR THE GREATER GOOD!”