For Immediate Release
July 21, 2008

Media Contact:

Kara Tershel, (202) 662-9500

Professor David Cole

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In his new book, "Justice at War: The Men and Ideas That Shaped America’s War on Terror" (New York Review Books, 2008), Georgetown University Law Center Professor David Cole examines how the decisions made by members of the Bush administration shaped America’s response to the threat of terrorism after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Reviewing the writings and statements of key architects of the war on terror, Cole explores how the Bush administration altered its thinking in regard to national security in the wake of the attacks. He examines the mindsets and motivations that he argues led members of the administration, including John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, David Addington and John Yoo, to justify the torture of suspected terrorists, carry out an illegal domestic surveillance program and allow the president to assume virtually unlimited power in the name of national security. In addition, Cole reviews the works of constitutional scholars Richard Posner and Bruce Ackerman on national security and the rule of law.

In a series of related essays that originally appeared in the New York Review of Books, Cole argues that the administration’s strategy was fundamentally flawed as a legal matter, and has rendered the United States more vulnerable to terrorist attacks over the long run. He maintains that America can prevail against terrorism only by embracing our constitutional principles, especially when our national security is at risk. He writes, "Both the strength and security of the nation in the struggle with terrorists rest on adherence to the rule of law, including international law, because only such adherence provides the legitimacy we need if we are to win back the world’s respect."

Cole, whom New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis has called "one of the country's great legal voices for civil liberties today," has received numerous honors for his civil rights and civil liberties work, including awards from the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Society of American Law Teachers, Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of the Freedom of Expression, American Bar Association’s Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section, National Lawyers Guild, Political Asylum and Immigrants’ Rights Project, American Muslim Council, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Cole is the co-author of "Less Safe, Less Free, Why America Is Losing the War on Terror," which captured the first Roy C. Palmer Civil Liberties Prize at Chicago-Kent College of Law in 2007, and "Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security." He is the author of "Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism," winner of the American Book Award in 2003, and "No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System," named best nonfiction book of 1999 by the Boston Book Review and best book on a subject of national policy by the American Political Science Association.

In addition to teaching at Georgetown Law, Cole is a volunteer attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. He is also the legal affairs correspondent for The Nation, a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and a commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.

 

 

About Georgetown University Law Center 

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It has the largest full-time faculty in the nation and is pre-eminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means, justice is the end. With this principle in mind, Georgetown Law has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body representing more than 60 countries.

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