Shhh! This is the Library of Congress!
The ACLU today sent a letter to the Library of Congress and the Congressional Research Service (CRS) on behalf of Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for the Guantánamo military commissions, who was terminated from his job at CRS because of opinion pieces he wrote about the commissions system that ran in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.
Davis resigned from his position in the military commissions in October 2007 because he believed that the system was fundamentally flawed. He then became a vocal critic of the commissions, writing articles, giving speeches and testifying before Congress.
The following year, Davis began working as the Assistant Director of the Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division at CRS, a department within the library that provides experts to assist members of Congress and committee staff in the legislative process. His work for CRS has nothing to do with Guantánamo or the military commissions. CRS was fully aware of his previous public criticism of the military commissions when he was hired, and since he has been at CRS, Col. Davis has received approval for other public speaking engagements on this very subject.
On November 11, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed and the Washington Post published a letter to the editor written by Davis expressing his views about the military commissions. Both pieces were written by Davis in his personal capacity, made clear that he was writing as a private individual and former chief prosecutor of the military commissions, and made no mention of CRS.
Immediately after the op-ed and the letter were published, Davis received a threatening email from his supervisor regarding the pieces and questioning Davis’s ability to continue serving as Assistant Director – despite the fact that the same supervisor had given him positive feedback about his work there as recently as the day before. In meetings that followed, Davis was informed that his employment would be terminated because of the pieces.
In the letter we sent today, we argue that CRS violated the First Amendment when it fired Davis for speaking as a private citizen about matters having nothing to do with his job there, and state that “if the Library is not willing to reinstate Col. Davis, we will be forced to bring an appropriate lawsuit on his behalf.”
According to ACLU staff attorney Aden Fine:
The First Amendment protects Col. Davis’s right to speak and write as a private citizen about issues on which he has personal knowledge. Col. Davis didn’t give up his right to express his opinions and first-hand knowledge about a matter of such public importance when he left the military commissions system and went to work somewhere else.
The public has a great interest in hearing from Col. Davis about Guantánamo and the military commissions because of his unique expertise as the former chief prosecutor there. There is no evidence that Col. Davis’s writing caused any disruption to the internal operations of his employer, and even if it had, the purported disruption could not come close to outweighing the benefit to the public of hearing from such an important expert on Guantánamo and the military commissions.
Dec 5th, 2009 at 3:43pm
Please read the last two entries on my blog, at http://requiemforaneditor.blogspot.com to read an anecdote regarding the state of free speech in this country, or lack thereof. It seems to depend on who is doing the speaking. Violence was committed at a lecture in Manhattan. Yours, Ed Lieber
Dec 5th, 2009 at 4:09pm
Please take a look at my blog, at http://requiemforaneditor.blogspot.com, for an idea of what Free Speech can mean today in this country. It seems to depend on who is doing the speaking. There was violence at a lecture.
Dec 6th, 2009 at 1:54pm
My understanding is that only the government is required to respect 1st amendment rights. A private company would be well within their rights to fire someone for publishing an opinion in a newspaper, but since the Congressional Research Center is a government agency, he cannot be terminated for excersizing his first amendment rights unless he would be defaming the office that he worked for. Good case, this kind of thing is worthwile. Completely different from when you sued the school board for not letting a little girl display anti-islamic hate messages in public elementary school classrooms.
Dec 6th, 2009 at 7:07pm
Sounds like that was a pretty dumb supervisor.
Dec 6th, 2009 at 7:09pm
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO THE ACLU AND TO ALL MANKIND ALL OVER THE WORLD AND OUTER SPACE IF ANYONE IS THERE. Yes I am a Christian....but I love mankind My God and his Son, my Saviour, Jesus Christ taught me that that God did not make any junk when he created manking and everytime he creates a baby anywhere in the world. Therefore, we Christians love Mankind. We don't always agree with what they do or make of themselves after God gives them the gift of "life", and sometimes we say so. Most Christians try to be kind with our words, but sometimes even Christians get so over-whelmed with "badness", and our Stress level takes over and sometimes we would just like to kick the living patooty out of what some of mankind say and do. Three of these people, whom we have been told are big supports of ACLU are Keith Olberman, who is is said is also a homosexual (nothing wrong with that), but pretends to be a man, and a sportscaster, and every word out of his mouth damns every Republican in the world as well as our Military. The otherone is Rachel Maddow - an avowed homosexual (nothing wrong with that), but she uses her "gotcha" voice to critisize, condemn and complain about one half of the United States of America - namely the Republicans and Independets - Green Party - Ron Pauls Party which I think is Libertaria. Then there is "dumber than a post", Chris Nathews. Mathews ask of the Fort Hood Muslim Terrorist who killed 14 wonderful Army Military at Ford Hood in Nov. 2009, "Is it against the law for this murderer to call Alqueda terrorist on the phone 50 times a day? Did not realize how low his "dumbness" could go! MSNB & NBC, CBS, ABC...THEY DAMN REPUBLICANS EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY! SOLUTION AND ACTION TO TAKE: lISTEN TO THESE SHOW AND CHANNELS...BUT ONLY TO JOT DOWN THEIR ADVERTISERS AND PHONE NUMBERS AND WEB ADDRESS. CONTACT THEM AND TELL THEM YOU WILL BOYCOTT THEIR PRODUCT, SELL THEIR STOCK, (ESPECIALLY MSNBC - SHAME ON BILL AND MELINDA GATES WHO OWN IT) AND BECOME ACTIVE! GET OFF YOUR DUFF AND "DO" SOMETHING! CONGRESS DAILY ...TELL THEM OFF, ESPECIALL THE DEMOCRATS! THEY HAVE BECOME CARD CARRING "COMMUNIST OR SOCIALIST" AND ARE HELPING BARAK AND MICHELLE OBAMA INTO TURNING THIS NATION INTO A GODLESS, SOCIALISTIC COUNTRY! SORRY WE WORK TOO HARD FOR OUR MONEY TO GIVE IT TO THE LIKES OF OBAMA'S "ACORN". THEY HAVE RECEIVED 45 BILLION ALREADY. WITH THEIR HELP, OBAMA WILLL "TRICK" AMERICA, WITH HIS SLICK LIES, AND MAKE HER "GODLESS" AND "SOCIALISTIC" AND WE TRUE AMERICANS DO NOT WANT TO DONATE OUR HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS AND OUR CHARITY DOLLARS TO THESE TERRIBLE ORGANIZATIONS. HATE TO SAY THAT ABOUT THE IRS...BUT IF OBAMA HAS HIS WAY, ACLU, THE IRS WILL BECOME AMERICA'S "ADOLF HITLER" AND YOU WILL GO TO JAIL FOR NOT LETTING THEM TAKE YOUR NEW "FREE" HEAKTH CARE, PREMIUM RIGHT OUT OF YOUR PAYCHECK AND YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, WITHOUT ASKING YOUR PERMISSION! ACLU IF YOU REALLY WANT TO HELP AMERICA, STOP THESE DEMOCRATS, HOLLYWOOD, OLBERMAN, MADDOW,MATHEWS, ED, AND OTHER MSNBS SCUM FROM IRRITATINGS AMERICANS SO MUCH EVERY MOMENT OF THE DAY, THAT WE WOULD LIKE TO BUNDLE THEM OFF AND SEND THEM TO THE COMMUNIST COUNTRIES OF KOREA, CHINA, SYRIA ETC. THEN THEY WOULD HAVE SOMETHING MINDLESS LIKE THEY IRRITATE AMERICA WITH TO TALK ABOUT AND IT WOULD BE TRUE IN THOSE COUNTRIES. SO ACLU, WE WISH YOU THE MERRIEST OF CHRISTMAS AND WE PRAY FOR EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU EVERY DAY, THAT YOU BE RIGHTOUS, LOVING AND KIND TO YOUR FELLOW MAN, AND PLEASE DO NOT SPREAD ANY HATRED AMONG OUR FELLOW MAN FOR THESE THIINGS WE PRAY, IN GOD'S NAME. AMEN
Dec 8th, 2009 at 8:34pm
Sheesh, it gets harder to stand up for the Christians with every caps lock doesn't it? Anyhoo, I fully support Col. Davis and the ACLU for coming to his defense. It's odd that the Library would not have covered their own behinds a little better in this situation.
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