Access & Accountability 2025
Preserving the Architecture of Accountability
Friday, October 31
8:00 REGISTRATION & CHECK-IN Room 122
Coffee and light breakfast
9:00 WELCOME Room 127
by David Schulz and Floyd Abrams
9:15 EVOLVING THREATS TO OUR DEMOCRACY: Room 127
A Conversation between Judge J. Michael Luttig and Linda Greenhouse
To kick things off, former Fourth Circuit Judge J. Michael Luttig will sit down with Yale Law School Senior Research Scholar Linda Greenhouse to discuss the current state of our democracy, ongoing threats to government accountability, and possible steps to address them.
10:00 SAFEGUARDING INSTITUTIONS OF ACCOUNTABILITY Room 127
This panel will survey recent assaults on the autonomy and authority of lawyers, universities, media, and non-governmental organizations. It will review the actions of the Trump Administration, assess their impact, and consider their implications for effective democratic oversight. The panel will explore various responses and legal challenges that have been mounted and seek to identify strategies for preserving a robust capacity to determine truth, articulate values, advocate for change, and hold power to account.
Moderator: Harold Hongju Koh (Yale)
Panelists: Anna Gomez (Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission); Genevieve Lakier (U. Chicago); Michael S. Schmidt (New York Times); Nicholas Turner (Vera Institute); Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. (Munger, Tolles & Olsen)
11:15 BREAK Room 122
11:25 CONSOLIDATING POWER IN THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH
While attacking independent institutions with capacity to check abuse of executive power, the Trump Administration has simultaneously sought to consolidate power in ways that threaten our system of checks and balances. Under the banner of the unitary executive theory, it has refused to implement programs and spend funds appropriated by Congress, asserted control over agencies Congress created to be independent, and removed statutorily imposed inspector generals and ethics officers. It has also asserted state secrets and executive authority over national security to thwart judicial proceedings, skirted court orders, and threatened judges with impeachment for rendering adverse rulings. And, the Administration has inserted itself directly into Justice Department decisions to investigate and prosecute. This panel will assess the unitary executive theory and the authority of the co-equal branches, consider the recourse available for presidential overreach, and explore the long-term implications of recent actions for executive branch accountability.
Moderator: John Langford (Yale)
Panelists: Elizabeth Goitein (Brennan Center); Jameel Jaffer (Knight Institute); Jodie Morse (Democracy Forward); Charlie Savage (New York Times); Jed Shugerman (Boston U.)
12:40 LUNCH Dining Hall
1:40 PRIVACY, DATA & DOGE Room 127
The Trump Administration is rapidly centralizing control over federal data and pushing for new access to state data while simultaneously working to establish new data-driven surveillance mechanisms. Much of this effort is aimed at facilitating immigration enforcement efforts, but the result may be further consolidation of presidential control over the administrative apparatus of the federal government, patronage practices, and AI cronyism for the Administration’s preferred partners. This panel will explore what is known about the extent of data consolidation that has been driven by DOGE, the purpose behind the consolidation efforts and how the consolidated data is being used. It will consider the implications for future government surveillance and personal privacy, and what legal recourse may exist for overreach and abuse.
Moderator: Nabiha Syed (Mozilla Foundation)
Panelists: Bridget Fahey (U. Chicago); Makena Kelly (Wired); Nikhel Sus (CREW); Mario Trujillo (EFF); Jennifer Urban (Berkeley)
2:50 BREAK Room 122
3:00 SAFEGUARDING A FREE PRESS Room 127
A free and independent press is the bulwark of democratic accountability. This panel will address issues of vital current interest to maintaining a press able to report effectively on government actions and abuses. It will consider practical responses to press intimidation, defenses to government retaliation, and preservation of newsgathering rights. Topics to be taken up will include the use of litigation and regulatory investigations to control the content of news reporting, the destruction of public broadcasting, partisan-based allocation of access to government facilities, and the impact of the Attorney General’s rescission of protections for confidential news sources and whistleblowers.
Moderator: Tobin Raju (MFIA)
Panelists: RonNell Andersen-Jones (Utah); Bill Grueskin (Columbia J School/ Bloomberg News); Summer Lopez (PEN America); Alexandra Perloff-Giles (Davis Wright Tremain); Katie Townsend (Gibson Dunn)
4:10 BREAK Room 122
4:20 EMERGING TRANSPARENCY THREATS
Significant alarms have been raised regarding steps by the Trump Administration to remove information from government websites and the lack of transparency surrounding many Administration initiatives. Topics are banished from discussion, FOIA staff eliminated, and record preservation laws apparently evaded. This panel will take up these issues with an eye toward identifying useful strategies to promote transparency and ensure a flow of accurate information sufficient for democracy to function.
Moderator: David McCraw (New York Times)
Panelists: Lauren Harper (Freedom of the Press Foundation); Scarlet Kim (ACLU); Shawn Musgrave (Intercept); Benjamin Sparks (American Oversight); Nikhel Sus (CREW)
5:30 END OF DAY
Saturday, November 1
7:30 FELN Steering Committee Meeting Room 129
(open to all)
9:00 WELCOME Room 129
by Bruce Brown (RCFP)
9:10 ACADEMIC FREEDOM & CLINICAL EDUCATION Room 129
This panel will discuss recent efforts to target law schools in general and law school clinics in particular. It will review how academic freedom applies in the clinical context and explore ethical issues that may arise when clinic projects become the focus of outside political pressures. consider the types of conflicts that can arise between political pressure and ethical obligations. The panel will assess strategies for addressing ethical concerns and minimizing risk to clinics and their students in the current climate.
Moderator: Jennifer Safstrom (Vanderbilt)
Panelists: Felicia Branch (U Arkansas); Scott Cummings (UCLA); Miriam Gohara (YLS); Gautam Hans (Cornell); Sarah Ludington (Duke)
10:30 MOVEMENT LAWYERING IN AN AUTOCRACY Room 129
This panel will continue the discussion, exploring ways that law school clinics and other public-interest organizations are thinking about building their dockets and pursuing impact litigation in the current political climate. It will engage in a frank discussion about how to navigate pressures that may be deterring clinics from taking on cases or causes—including potential partisan retaliation and backlash from funders—as well as pressures to address new issues or partner with new organizations given the growing crisis confronting the rule of law.
Moderator: Stacy Livingston (MFIA)
Panelists: Mark Jackson (Cornell); Jonathan Manes (Northwestern); Amanda Martin (Duke); Michael Steinberg (Michigan)
11:45 BREAK Room 122
12:00 SUCCESS STORIES Room 122
(Over Boxed Lunch)
Moderator: Heidi Kitrosser (Northwestern)
1:15 END
This Conference is made possible by generous support received from:
JOHN S. AND JAMES L. KNIGHT FOUNDATION
AAC2025 is hosted by the Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Media Freedom & Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School, programs of the Information Society Project.
2025 Conference Planning Committee:
Bruce Brown
Heidi Kitrosser
John Langford
Stacy Livingston
David McCraw
Tobin Raju
Jennifer Safstrom
David A. Schulz
Nabiha Syed