Brennan Center for Justice

The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School is a progressive, non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on issues involving democracy and justice. The Center is "dedicated to strengthening democracy and securing justice, through law, scholarship, education and advocacy."

The organization is currently headed by Michael Waldman, former Director of Speechwriting for President Bill Clinton from 1995–1999.

History and mission
The Brennan Center for Justice was founded in 1995 by the family and former law clerks of Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan. Justice Brennan’s idea of a living constitution figures largely into the center’s work. The Brennan Center is involved in issues such as voting rights, redistricting reform, economic justice, and presidential power in the fight against terrorism. The organization is part think tank, part public interest law firm, and part advocacy group.

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
The Brennan Center provided research central to drafting and enacting the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 ("BCRA"). The law banned "soft money" contributions to political campaigns. Brennan Center attorneys helped to successfully defend the law before the United States Supreme Court in McConnell v. FEC. The center was part of a coalition representing Senators John McCain, Russ Feingold, Olympia Snowe, and James Jeffords, and Representatives Christopher Shays and Martin Meehan.

The Center has advised the United States Congress and state legislatures on improving America’s election laws.

New York State reform
In 2004 the Brennan Center released a report calling the New York State Legislature the most dysfunctional in the United States. The report received national attention. The organization followed up on the report by representing plaintiffs Margarita López Torres, other unsuccessful judicial candidates, and Common Cause, in a court case that challenges the way New York state trial judge candidates gain access to the ballot. They prevailed in the U.S. District Court and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. In 2007 attorneys from the Brennan Center argued N.Y. State Bd. of Elections v. Lopez Torres before the United States Supreme Court, but in 2008 the court ruled for the state.

Liberty and national security
The Brennan Center currently represents several detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and also U.S. citizens or legal residents held as unlawful enemy combatants. Attorneys from the Center are challenging a U.S. President's authority to declare a prisoner to be an unlawful enemy combatant in the fight against terrorism. The Center also challenges the U.S. Congress’s power to deny habeas corpus to such prisoners.