Federal Judge Damon J. Keith, widely known for his landmark 1971 ruling that wiretapping without a warrant is a violation of the U.S. Constitution, will be among distinguished panelists who will discuss Constitutional protections in relation to national security at the Wayne State University Law School, Tuesday, Nov. 18. The 4 p.m. event will be held in the law school's Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium. The public is invited, and a reception will follow at 5:30 p.m.

Other panel members will be Leonard Weinglass, civil rights activist and lead defense counsel in the controversial John Sinclair case, in which Keith issued his historic wiretap decision; Hugh M. Davis Jr., another member of Sinclair's defense team in the 1971 case; Jeffrey Collins, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan; and Professor Robert Sedler, who holds the Walter Gibbs Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the WSU Law School and is a longtime civil rights activist.

The panelists will discuss the Sinclair case, in which the government argued that it did not need a warrant to wiretap in situations involving national security. Judge Keith - at the time a U.S. district judge - held that wiretapping without a court order is unconstitutional. In an unanimous opinion, the United States Supreme Court agreed with Judge Keith that there is no "national security" exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement.

There also will be a discussion of the recent Haddad case, in which Judge Keith wrote an opinion for the United States District Court holding that there was no "national security" exception to the First Amendment right of the public and the press to attend a legal proceeding. The government tried to close deportation hearings of certain "special interest" cases on the grounds that this was necessary for "national security." In rejecting this argument and affirming the decision of U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds, Judge Keith stated: "Democracies die behind closed doors. The First Amendment, through a free press, protects the people's rights to know that their government acts fairly, lawfully and accurately in deportation proceedings. When government begins closing doors, it selectively controls information rightfully belonging to the people. Selective information is misinformation."

The theme of the panel discussion is "Judge Keith, the Constitution and National Security: From Sinclair to Haddad." For more information, contact Professor Sedler at (313) 577-3968.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.

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