Dempsey, James X.

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Graduated from Yale College, 1975; 1Harvard University, J.D., 1979.

ADDRESSES: Office—Center for Democracy & Technology, 1634 Eye St. NW, Ste. 1100, Washington, DC 20006. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Former clerk in Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for Robert Braucher; Arnold & Porter (law firm), Washington, DC, associate, 1980–84; House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, Washington, DC, assistant counsel, 1985–94; special counsel to National Security Archive, 1995–96; Center for Democracy & Technology, Washington, DC, senior staff counsel, 1997–2001, deputy director, 2001–03, executive director, 2003–, policy director of the Global Internet Policy Initiative. Former deputy director, Center for National Security Studies.

WRITINGS:

(With David Cole) Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security, foreword by Carole Goldberg, First Amendment Foundation (Los Angeles, CA), 1999, revised edition, 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: An attorney who became executive director of the Center for Democracy & Technology in Washington, DC, James X. Dempsey has long concerned himself with Americans' civil liberties. After leaving the law firm of Arnold & Porter in 1984, he worked for nearly ten years as an assistant counsel for the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights. There he was involved in the oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and became very concerned about what he saw as the infringement upon the privacy of citizens as the agency went about its counterespionage and counterterrorism investigations. As special counsel to the National Security Archive in the mid-1990s, Dempsey became well acquainted with the federal government's activities by obtaining documents through the Freedom of Information Act. As the leader of the Center for Democracy & Technology, he remains closely involved in learning how the federal government uses electronic and other surveillance means to obtain information on people's personal lives.

All of this background has made Dempsey an expert on the issue of whether or not an individual's civil rights are being violated by the U.S. government, especially since the passage of the 1996 Anti-Terrorism Act and the 2001 Patriot Act. The former law allows non-citizens to be deported if they are suspected of sympathizing with an alleged terrorist organization; the latter, passed after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States, permits federal agents to survey the activities of Americans and other residents and allows people to be accused of the crime of "material support" of terrorists for infractions such as donating to a charitable organization suspected to have ties to terrorist groups. Together with Georgetown University law professor David Cole, Dempsey published Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security in 1999 to explain how these laws pose a severe threat to freedom in the United States. The book was revised in 2002.

In Terrorism and the Constitution Dempsey and Cole first provide an historical context to show how the FBI and other federal agencies have repeatedly tested the limits of civil liberty infractions. Their illustrations range back to the McCarthy Hearings of the 1950s, when widespread fear of Communism swept through the U.S. government, and the Vietnam War era (1954–75). Working their way up to the 1980s, the authors relate the story of the "L.A. Eight," a case in which Dempsey was personally involved as a practicing attorney. In this case, eight immigrants were deported for supposedly supporting the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). As Robert M. Chesney pointed out in the Michigan Law Review, the authors do not dwell on whether or not the PFLP was actually involved in terrorism; the main thrust of the example is demonstrating how the FBI was able to use immigration laws against the L.A. Eight without regard for the First Amendment. The last third of the book focuses on how civil liberties have been whittled away since the declaration of the war on terrorism. But "the main issue in their view," explained Chesney, "is not whether fear will cause well-intentioned officials to make mistakes but instead whether fear will cause the public to tolerate overreaching by the government."

As Christopher H. Pyle noted in a Political Science Quarterly review of Terrorism and the Constitution, Dempsey and Cole also outline how the government could fight terrorism better without violating civil liberties. Terrorism, the authors note, should be treated as a crime, not a political viewpoint; therefore, people should be targeted as possible terrorists or terrorist sympathizers only according to their actions, and not according to their political views. Such an approach would make intense monitoring of people's reading and Internet habits irrelevant. In this way, commented Pyle, the authors "explain how our government could actually right terrorism more effectively by respecting constitutional rights. Charles Willett, writing in Counterpoise, called Terrorism and the Constitution "as engrossing as a Stephen King novel but even more horrifying, because the events they describe are true."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Journal of International Law, April, 2000, Barry Kellman, "Review Essay: Clashing Perspectives on Terrorism," pp. 434-438.

Counterpoise, July, 1999, Charles Willett, review of Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security, pp. 63-65.

Economist, September 7, 2002, "Easy to Lose: Civil Liberties," review of Terrorism and the Constitution.

Michigan Law Review, May, 2003, Robert M. Chesney, review of Terrorism and the Constitution, p. 1408.

Political Science Quarterly, summer, 2003, Christopher H. Pyle, review of Terrorism and the Constitution, p. 320.

Publishers Weekly, August 26, 2002, "September 11: Before and After," review of Terrorism and the Constitution, p. 53.

ONLINE

Center for Democracy & Technology, http://www.cdt.org/ (April 20, 2005), "The Carnivore Controversy: Electronic Surveillance and Privacy in the Digital Age."