[Hamp-law] Michael Ratner

[Jennifer Hamilton]

*Please join us!*

*
Law Lunch with Michael Ratner from the Center for Constitutional Rights, 
Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008, 1 - 2 p.m.
Dakin Living Room*

Torture, off-shore penal colonies; kangaroo courts; illegal war; and the 
claim that the Executive is above the law have characterized the last 
eight years. The Bush administration has systematically dismantled some 
of the most important rights and protections in the United States 
Constitution. *Constitutional lawyer and activist Michael Ratner, in his 
talk “The First 100 Days: Restoring Our Constitution,” will show how the 
next president can, often with the stroke of a pen, restore, protect, 
and expand the fundamental rights on which our nation was founded. It is 
up to all of us to see that he does.*

Michael Ratner is one of the foremost constitutional lawyers of our 
time, and his non-profit human rights litigation organization, the 
Center for Constitutional Rights, has been on the forefront of the 
battle against the depredations on civil liberties by the Bush 
Administration in its War on Terror. The CCR challenged the USA PATRIOT 
Act and filed a lawsuit on behalf of post-9/11 immigration detainees. 
Mr. Ratner was co-counsel for Guantanamo Bay detainees before the United 
States Supreme Court in /Rasul v. Bush/ in which the court decided 
detainees have the right to test the legality of their detentions in 
court. In 2006 he filed a criminal complaint in the courts of Germany 
requesting the criminal prosecution of former U.S. Secretary of Defense 
Donald Rumsfeld and other US officials for the abuse and torture at Abu 
Ghraib Prison.

Mr. Ratner has authored numerous books and articles, including /Against 
War with Iraq/ and /Guantanamo: What the World Should Know/, and a 
textbook on international human rights. Mr. Ratner is also the co-host 
of the radio program, /Law and Disorder 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_and_Disorder>./

-- 
Dr. Jennifer A. Hamilton
Assistant Professor of Legal Studies
School of Social Science
Hampshire College
Franklin Patterson Hall 208
893 West Street
Amherst, MA 01002

(413) 559-5578 (o)
(413) 559-5620 (f)
jhamilton at hampshire.edu
http://www.hampshire.edu/ss/7410.htm