2006 Symposium:
Federal Prosecutions of State and Local Officials: Challenges and Alternatives
On Friday, March 24, 2006, the Wayne Law Review, with the support of the State Bar of Michigan and the Departments of Criminal Justice and Political Science at Wayne State University, will host its Annual Legal Symposium on the topic of Public Corruption.
Given the recent high-profile federal prosecutions of certain members of Mayor Daley's staff in Chicago, Governor of Connecticut John Rowland, the former Mayor of Atlanta Bill Campbell, former Detroit City Council member Alonzo Bates, California Representative Randy Cunningham, former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, former Connecticut State Senator Ernest Newton, Scooter Libby, Jack Abramoff, and many others, public corruption cases are a firm priority for the U.S. Department of Justice.
However, many have criticized these efforts as “federalizing” what would be the purview of county and state prosecutors. Others have pointed out that the U.S. Attorney’s primarily statutory weapon against official malfeasance, the Hobbs Act, is a vague and ineffective tool to fight the broad range of activities labeled “public corruption.” Still others have long advocated that Congress amend federal criminal statutes to clarify the role of the federal government in policing state and local officials. Another group promotes governmental ethics codes and internal legislative oversight in the place of criminal prosecutions.
Those who support federal efforts to fight local corruption point to the superior resources of federal investigatory agencies and to the lack of conflicts of interest that potentially plague local prosecutors. In any event, the recent federal investigations and prosecutions have stirred a vigorous national debate.
The Review is planning a one-day Conference on these and related topics. The Review has assembled a distinguished group of professors, federal prosecutors, defense attorneys, journalists, and government officials to discuss these and other considerations. This will be an informative and enlightening discussion that will be of great interest to many attorneys, students, academics, local officials, the bench, and members of the public.
Details
8:30 – 5:00 p.m
Friday, 24 March 2006
Wayne State University Law School
471 W. Palmer St.
Detroit MI 48202
Sponsored by
The Wayne Law Review
Supported by
The State Bar of
Michigan
Wayne
State Departments of Criminal Justice
Political
Science
Speaker List
Noel Hillman
Chief of the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington
DC
As Chief of the Public Integrity Unit of the Department of Justice, Mr. Hillman coordinates the wing of the Department of Justice assigned to the federal investigations and prosecutions of public corruption crimes. Mr. Hillman served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1992 to 2001, as a trial attorney for the Campaign Finance Task Force from 1999 to 2000, and Chief of the Public Integrity Unit since 2003.
Craig Morford
Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio
As a prominent government prosecutor, Mr. Morford has prosecuted a variety
of high-profile public corruption cases in his career, including the successful
prosecution of U.S. Representative James Traficant. He worked for three years
with the IRS as a trial attorney in Cleveland and then went to work for the
Organized Crime Strike Force. He has also served as the interim U.S. Attorney
for the Eastern District of Michigan for fifteen months (2004-05), during the
investigation of the June 2003 Detroit terrorist investigations.
Richard Hibey
Criminal Defense Attorney, Miller Chevalier, Washington DC
Mr. Hibey focuses his a large part of his practice as an attorney on white
collar criminal matters. Mr. Hibey has represented high-profile clients in
cases that have involved espionage, human rights violations, RICO, and other
white collar crimes to complex civil matters. Mr. Hibey was trial counsel for
Sun Diamond Growers of California when it was prosecuted by the Office of Independent
Counsel investigating former Secretary of Agriculture, Michael Espy (138 F.3d
961 (1998), 526 U.S. 398 (1999)). Among other high-profile cases, Mr. Hibey
was chief counsel for the Special Bid Oversight Commission of the U.S. Olympic
Committee which investigated the events leading to the selection of Salt Lake
City to host the Winter Olympics.
Marilyn Glynn
Legal Counsel for the United States Office of Government Ethics
Mrs. Glynn serves as General Counsel to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics
(OGE). The OGE, a small agency within the executive branch, was established
by the Ethics in Government Act of 1978. Originally part of the Office of Personnel
Management, OGE became a separate agency on October 1, 1989 as part of the
Office of Government Ethics Reauthorization Act of 1988. The Office of Government
Ethics exercises leadership in the executive branch to prevent conflicts of
interest on the part of Government employees and to resolve those conflicts
of interest that do occur. In partnership with executive branch agencies and
departments, OGE fosters high ethical standards for employees and strengthens
the public's confidence that the Government's business is conducted with impartiality
and integrity.
Professor George Brown
Boston College Law School
Professor George Brown is a specialist in the field of federal-state relations
and government ethics. In both areas he draws on his extensive experience in
state government. He has served as Legislative Assistant to the Governor of
Massachusetts and as Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts. In 1994,
Governor William Weld appointed him Chair of the Massachusetts State Ethics
Commission. In the field of federal-state relations, Professor Brown is best
known for his articles on the jurisdiction of federal courts and on the federal
grant-in-aid system. He has also served as Chair of the Section on Federal
Courts of the Association of American Law Schools.
In the field of government ethics, Professor Brown has written
several articles on current judicial developments. His proposal
for the use of state law in mail fraud prosecutions was adopted
by the Fifth Circuit in a major anti-corruption decision
Professor Frank Anechiarico
Hamilton College
Professor Daniel Lowenstein
University of California, Los Angeles
Professor Daniel Lowenstein teaches Election Law, Statutory Interpretation & Legislative
Process, Political Theory, and Law & Literature. A leading expert on election
law, he has represented members of the House of Representatives in litigation
regarding reapportionment and the constitutionality of term limits.
Professor Lowenstein worked as a staff attorney at California Rural Legal Assistance
for two and one-half years. While working for California's Secretary of State,
Edmund G. Brown Jr. in 1971, he specialized in election law, and was the main
drafter of the Political Reform Act, an initiative statute that California
voters approved in 1974, thereby creating a new Fair Political Practices Commission.
Governor Brown appointed Professor Lowenstein as first chairman of the Commission.
He has served on the national governing board of Common Cause and has been
a board member and a vice president of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights.
Professor Lowenstein's textbook, Election Law (1995), appears
to be the first text on American election law since 1877. He
has written on such topics as campaign finance, redistricting,
bribery, initiative elections, political parties, commercial
speech, and The Merchant of Venice.
Michael Stanton
Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author and Journalist, Providence Journal, Providence
RI
Mr. Stanton leads the investigative reporting team at the Providence
Journal in Rhode Island. He has won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative
reporting, the Master Reporting Award, as well as prizes from the American
Society of Newspaper Editors and the Associated Press. Stanton’s
work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Columbia Journalism Review,
and the Boston Globe. His highly praised book “The Prince of
Providence: The Story of America’s Most Notorious Mayor” detailed
Mayor Cianci’s reign of corruption in the 1980s and 1990s.
Recent Symposia
Past Symposia
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2003
2001
2000
1999
