Search results for: civic liberties

One result of the Bush Administration’s striking combination of ineptitude and contempt for law and government is a growing shelf, on its way to becoming a library, of books that chronicle and analyze the ways in which constitutional rights and international law have been assaulted…

Last week was a dramatic one, on both sides of the Atlantic, in the battle to preserve fundamental human rights against the recent disturbing tendencies of two of the world’s leading democracies to invoke fear of terrorism to claim extraordinary and excessive powers. In the…

Now that we know that Barack Obama will take the office of President of the United States on January 20, the scenario planning that virtually all non-profits and philanthropies have been doing can kick into high gear. My e-mail inbox, and no doubt yours, is…

Now that both major parties in the U.S. have presumptive nominees for the Presidency, it seems like a good time to share some thoughts on the relationships between philanthropy and government – relationships that Atlantic has considerable experience with in each of the countries in…

When Gordon Johnson was a teenager, his Dad took in two nieces and two nephews whose parents were unable to care for them. He never forgot his father’s big-spirited act, or the neglect by government care agencies that made it necessary. Mr. Johnson pursued a…

  Supporting advocates who work to persuade members of the U.S. Congress of the necessity of allocating more federal money for children’s health programmes... Backing public interest lawyers whose arguments convince the U.S. Supreme Court that capital punishment for youth is unconstitutional.... Convincing lawmakers to…

By Michele BrandtOPINION: The Taoiseach has announced that Ireland is going to have a “constitutional convention”, which will examine the options for reform on a range of issues: review of the electoral system; reducing the presidential term to five years and aligning it with local and…

Since October, the situation has worsened everywhere – something you don’t need me to tell you, since the news each day brings fresh tales of economic distress in virtually every country, and among our families and friends. Here in Ireland, where I am spending most…

When I arrived in Austin, Texas, the day after Labor Day in 1984 to take up my post as Executive Director of the Texas state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, a 30-year old Yankee who’d never set foot in the state before my…

The end of one year and the start of the next is a traditional time for looking both back and forward, and a good time to check in with readers of this column – an unusual experiment in philanthropy that we started in July, a…