The Rights Working Group Spotlights Racial Profiling Dangers Anticipated in Proposed FBI Guidelines

The RWG Executive Director to participate in a National Press Club panel analyzing potential impact of FBI Guidelines

September 5, 2008

Washington, D.C. - Margaret Huang, Executive Director of the Rights Working Group, will spotlight the racial profiling dangers inherent in the forthcoming guidelines intended to govern FBI criminal, national security and foreign intelligence investigations as part of a September 9th panel discussion. The panel, hosted by The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACSLP), will look at whether the Guidelines diverge from longstanding FBI practices and procedures and whether they would subject Americans to intrusive surveillance without any evidence of criminal activity. Ms. Huang will focus her presentation on the potential for human rights violations if the FBI is allowed to use race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion to profile individuals. The panel will explore the question of whether we, as a nation, will permit racial or ethnic profiling in either the criminal justice or national security context.

The FBI Guidelines, which are slated to be finalized and signed later this month by Attorney General Michael Mukasey, have not been made public, but they have provoked concern from Members of Congress who have been briefed on their contents. A September 17th congressional hearing is being planned.

What: Panel Discussion on FBI Guidelines & Racial Profiling in a Post-9/11 World
Where: The National Press Club, First Amendment Room, 529 14th Street NW, 13th Floor Washington, DC
When: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 12pm-2pm
Who: Sponsored by The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy

• Margaret Huang, Executive Director, Rights Working Group
• Mike German, Policy Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union, and former FBI Special Agent
• Ilya Shapiro, Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute
• Moderator, Muneer Ahmad, Visiting Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

A light lunch will be served beginning at 12:00 p.m.

To RSVP, click here.

For more information: Priya Doshi, Rights Working Group, 202-296-2300 Ext. 125.

# # #

The Rights Working Group is a coalition of 250 community-based grassroots groups and national organizations formed in the aftermath of 9-11 that works to ensure civil liberties and human rights protections for all people living in the U.S. On September 25, the RWG is organizing the Night of 1,000 Conversations to spotlight and begin to rectify the violations of human rights and civil liberties which are happening everyday as result of Department of Homeland Security policies.

The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) is one of the nation's leading progressive legal organizations. Founded in 2001, ACS is a rapidly growing network of lawyers, law students, scholars, judges, policymakers and other concerned individuals. Our mission is to ensure that fundamental principles of human dignity, individual rights and liberties, genuine equality and access to justice enjoy their rightful, central place in American law. For more information about the organization, which has established student chapters at more than 160 law schools around the country and lawyer chapters in 30 cities, please visit www.acslaw.org.