PUBLIC EVENT -- ALL WELCOME
A Panel Debate on Civil Liberties
Thursday, October 17, 2002, 6:30 P.M.
Los Angeles Rooms A & B, 3rd floor, University-Student Union, Cal State L.A.
"Is the Constitution under attack from the Bush Administration?" This question will be debated by the four panelists at this event. Arguing on the "yes" side of the question will by Cy Husain, an American-born Muslim student, and Randy Hamud, an Arab-American lawyer who has defended some of the immigrants detained after 9/11. Arguing on the "no" side will be Jeremy Rosen, an attorney and Pepperdine faculty member who is also a member of the Federalist Society, and Matthew McLaughlin, a spokesman for the FBI. Moderated by Professor Marjorie Bray, Latin American Studies (CSULA).
Sponsored by the Humanist Association at Cal State L.A., a registered student organization.
The Cal State L.A. campus is located at the intersection of the San Bernardino and Long Beach Freeways (10 and 710). The University-Student Union is located at the north end of the campus. Meter parking is available in the parking structure nearby.
Information: (323) 227-4678 or
activism@pacbell.net .
Capsule biographies of the participants:
Randall B. Hamud, the U.S.-born son of an Arab immigrant and a graduate of UCLA Law School (1970), agreed to represent three young Arab Muslim immigrants from the San Diego area who were arrested after the September 11th attacks. In so doing, he has become a vocal critic of what he considers the Bush Administration's attack on fundamental Constitutional rights. He has appeared on the Fox News Channel, CNN, CBS and debated Alan Dershowitz on Court TV. He authored a personal account, "Diary of a 'Terrorist's' Lawyer," which appeared in California Lawyer magazine (April, 2002).
Cy Husain is a born and raised U.S. citizen of Albanian Muslim descent and a graduate student in Theoretical Physics at Cal State L.A. After the September 11th attacks, he lost his job as a technician when FBI agents came to interview him at work. Later, armed men claiming to be with the Joint Terrorism Task Force searched his house without a warrant. Husain is also a liberal Democratic Party activist and has spoken out about the human rights of Muslim people.
Matthew McLaughlin has been a Special Agent with the Los Angeles office of the FBI for ten years. Prior to that, he worked for the Naval Investigative Service as a white collar crime investigator and polygraph examiner, and before that as a radio news anchor/reporter. As an FBI agent, he has experience in undercover assignments, gang and kidnaping investigations, and for the past two years has been the spokesperson / media coordinator for the FBI's Office of Public Affairs in Los Angeles. A Cal State Fullerton graduate with a B.A. in Communications, he is married with children.
Jeremy B. Rosen is a graduate of Cornell (B.A., 1993) and Duke (J.D. and L.L.M., 1997). He has been at associate with the Horvitz and Levy firm since 2001 and has handled appeals from Internet defamation cases, as well as tort and contract cases. He is an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine Law School, a member of the Federalist Society, and has written articles critiquing the Independent Counsel Act and excessive jury awards (Los Angeles Daily Journal, vol. 114, No. 168).