Tuesday, November 15, 2005


Deans and Professors Oppose Graham Amendment

Letters circulated among law school deans and law school professors urge the United States Senate to strip the Graham Amendment from the Department of Defense authorization bill. The amendment would prevent federal courts from hearing habeas corpus cases from the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Both letters argue that the Graham Amendment is a grave threat to the constitutional premise of separation of powers, as it would leave executive actions in holding detainees in the war on terror free from any oversight.

YLS Dean Harold Koh was one of the drafters and initial signatories of the deans' letter, while Judith Resnik, the Arthur Liman Professor of Law at YLS, played a similar role with the professors' letter.