The First Amendment in Wartime: National Security vs. Civil Liberties Four Top Experts to Debate Issues in Open Forum

ELLENSBURG WA - As part of Central Washington University's 2006-2007 First Amendment Festival, four experts will debate the tensions and tradeoffs between protecting national security and protecting the public's civil liberties and its right to government records in a time of war. The forum will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 10, in McConnell Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.

"This is such a hot topic and has been ever since the 9/11 terrorist attacks," said CWU journalism professor Cynthia Mitchell, who's chair of the yearlong festival. "We thought it would be great to bring in top people in this area and let not only the panelists but the public discuss these issues."

Up for debate: Should the government be able to tap phones without a warrant? Is the Patriot Act a vital tool for law enforcement officials or does it infringe on citizens' privacy and civil liberties? Has the massive "reclassification" of government documents been vital to keep the country secure, or has that kept the public in the dark about important issues?

Two top government officials will argue on behalf of the federal government. James McDevitt, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, was appointed by President George W. Bush and approved by the Senate just 2-1/2 months after the Sept. 11 attacks. A veteran of both the Gulf and Viet Nam wars, McDevitt also has a long career as a civil litigation attorney and was a partner in Preston, Gates & Ellis LLP.

William J. Bosanko is Associate Director of the federal Information Security Oversight Office, which oversees the security classification programs in both governmental and industry and reports annually to the President. Thousands of records have been re-classsified since 9/11, and Bosanko was involved in a recent audit to determine whether those reclassifications were necessary to protect national security.

Arguing on behalf of the press and the public's access to records will be Rebecca Carr, a national correspondent for Cox Newspapers who covers the "secrecy beat" full time for the chain's 16 newspapers. She recently received the Society of Professional Journalists award for national reporting for her coverage of national secrecy issues.

The other panelist represents the American Civil Liberties Union. Michael Schein is a longtime Seattle civil attorney and a former professor of U.S. legal history at Seattle University Law School. Since Sept. 11, he has argued numerous times in public debates about the dangers of the Patriot Act.

"What we really need to do with respect to the Patriot Act and any of these kinds of laws and legislation that tremendously impact our way of life, is we need to discuss them," said McDevitt, the U.S. Attorney. "In the continuum between absolute security - which I will tell you we will never get - and anarchy, the answer lies somewhere in between. ...We need to understand what we're getting for what we're giving up."

Contact: Cynthia Mitchell, CWU Asst. Prof. of Journalism. Chair, 2006-2007 First Amendment Festival, (509) 963-1063, mitchellc@cwu.edu