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TITLE: National Security and the Constitution
SPEAKER: Louis Fisher , Brian McKeon, Michael O'Neill
EVENT DATE: 09/12/2007
RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
The Law Library of Congress hosted a panel discussion on "National Security and the Constitution." Law Library specialist and constitutional scholar, Louis Fisher, chaired the panel comprised of Brian McKeon, deputy staff director and chief counsel for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and Michael O'Neill, minority chief counsel and staff director for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. The three discussed the constitutional principles that govern and influence national security policy, emergency powers, inherent presidential power, the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and the role of Congress and the president in formulating and carrying out national security policy in a post-9/11 environment.
Speaker Biography: Louis Fisher is a constitutional law specialist in the Law Library of Congress. From 1970 to March 2006, Fisher worked in the Congressional Research Service, where he was senior specialist in separation of powers. He is the author of "Presidential War Power" (2d ed. 2004), "In the Name of National Security: Unchecked Presidential Power and the Reynolds Case" (2006), "American Constitutional Law" (with David Gray Adler, 7th ed. 2007) and "Constitutional Conflicts between Congress and the President" (5th ed. 2007).
Speaker Biography: Brian McKeon is deputy staff director and chief counsel on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, where he has served since 1997. He is responsible for all legal issues, treaties and nominations, and is the lead staff person on legislation regarding the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the Georgetown University Law Center, he clerked for U.S. District Judge Robert Doumar and worked as a legislative assistant to Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.). He worked in the Clinton-Gore campaign in 1996 and as an assistant to Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire in Northern Ireland.
Speaker Biography: Michael O'Neill is minority chief counsel and staff director for the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and was an associate professor at George Mason University School of Law. He previously served as general counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, special assistant in the U.S. Attorney???s office for the District of Columbia and in the Honors Program at the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 1996 and for Judge David B. Sentelle of the D.C. Circuit, 1990-91. O'Neill is a graduate of Brigham Young University and the Yale Law School. While at Yale, he was editor of articles and book reviews for the Yale Law Journal and articles editor of the Yale Journal on Regulation.