San Rafael:MARIN CHAPTER, ACLU-Death Penalty -Education -Law Enforcement

MEETING NOTICE: BOARD OF DIRECTORS, MARIN CHAPTER, ACLU

Monthly Meeting: Monday, November 16, 2009, 7:00 pm.


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Directions: From US 101, from north or south, exit Central San Rafael exit,
head west on 2nd or 4th St. to Lincoln or Lindaro, turn L (south). The
building is a large office building between Lincoln and Lindaro, south of
2nd St. with a parking lot in front. As you face the building with
your back to downtown the entrance is on the right side.
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TENTATIVE AGENDA:
1. Call to order
2. Approval of Agenda (attached)
3. Approval of minutes of prev. meeting
4. Treasurer’s report
5. Chair’s Report
6. Non Agenda Items and Announcements
7. Old Business
8. New Business
-- soccer league matter
9. ACLU-NC Report
10. Committee reports
-Death Penalty
-Education
-Law Enforcement
-Nomination Committee and Annual Meeting
-Media Committee
-- Community Media Center
-Outreach Committee
-Other Committees
11. Adjournment
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THIS MONTH'S QUOTE:
... the miscarriage of justice that leaves Arar without a remedy in our
courts. The majority would
immunize official misconduct by invoking the separation of powers and the
executive’s
responsibility for foreign affairs and national security. Its approach
distorts the system of checks and balances essential to the rule of law, and
it trivializes the judiciary’s role in these arenas.

To my mind, the most depressing aspect of the majority’s opinion is its
sincerity. A primary theme of the majority’s approach is deference to
executive authority, especially in a time of national unrest, turmoil, or
danger. The conduct of foreign policy and the maintenance of national
security are surely executive and legislative powers. Yet those powers are
not limitless. The bounds in both wartime and peacetime are fixed by the
same Constitution. ... there is, in my view, an enormous difference between
being deferential and being supine in the face of governmental misconduct.
The former is often necessary, the latter never is. At the end of the day,
it is not the role of the judiciary to serve as a help-mate to the executive
branch, and it is not its role to avoid difficult decisions for fear of
complicating life for federal officials. Always mindful of the fact that in
times of national stress and turmoil the rule of law is everything, our role
is to defend the Constitution. We do this by affording redress when
government officials violate the law, even when national security is invoked
as the justification.
-- Barrington Parker, J., dissenting
Arar v. Ashcroft, Docket No. 06-4216-cv (2nd Cir., Nov. 2009)

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