Cole, David 1958-

PERSONAL:

Born 1958. Education: Yale University, B.A., J.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Washington, DC. Office—Georgetown University Law Center, 600 New Jersey Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20001. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

During early career, was law clerk to Judge Arlin M. Adams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; Center for Constitutional Rights, Washington, DC, former staff attorney; Georgetown University, Washington, DC, currently professor of law; Nation, legal affairs correspondent; commentator for National Public Radio's All Things Considered.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Alpha Sigma Nu prize, Jesuit Honor Society, 2001, for No Equal Justice; American Book Award and Hefner First Amendment Prize, both 2004, both for Enemy Aliens; numerous awards for civil rights and civil liberties work, including awards from the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of the Freedom of Expression, the American Bar Association's Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section, the National Lawyers Guild, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Political Asylum and Immigrants' Rights Project, the American Muslim Council, and Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

WRITINGS:

(With James X. Dempsey) Terrorism & the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security, foreword by Carole Goldberg, First Amendment Foundation (Los Angeles, CA), 1999, 3rd edition, foreword by Nancy Talanian and Kit Gage, New Press (New York, NY), 2006.

No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System, New Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism, New Press (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Jules Lobel) Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror, New Press (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

A lawyer, educator, and journalist, David Cole has litigated a number of cases in defense of the first amendment and other constitutional issues. He has also written extensively about civil rights, criminal justice, constitutional law, and law and literature. While he has paid special attention to what he perceives as a dangerous attack on constitutional rights since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he began writing about this subject before these attacks occurred. Along with James X. Dempsey, he is the author of Terrorism & the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security. A third edition of the book was published in 2006. Writ- ten for a general audience, the book examines abuses to the U.S. Constitution performed in the name of fighting terrorism, with a special focus on abuses committed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The authors provide a long history of these abuses, from denials of due process to detentions based on secret evidence by the FBI. Later editions outline how these abuses have broadened since the 2001 attacks. In the third edition, special attention is paid not only to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1996 but also the Patriot Act of 2001.

John Riley, writing in the Alaska Justice Forum, referred to the book as "a critical account of our increasing willingness to trade civil rights for an enhanced sense of security, a trade that the authors argue will ultimately leave us both unsafe and unsatisfied." Noting that the authors "explain how our government could actually right terrorism more effectively by respecting constitutional rights," Political Science Quarterly contributor Christopher H. Pyle added: "This is a book every citizen should read and act upon."

In No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System, Cole shows how the American judicial system, based on equal justice for all, is abused when dealing with American citizens who are minorities and/or of lower socioeconomic status. The author covers topics such as police behavior, jury selection, and sentencing, showing how the U.S. judicial system depends on double standards to operate so that the privileged can enjoy constitutional protections without paying the costs associated with giving the same protections to minorities and the poor. The author includes suggestions for solutions to some of the problems outlined in the book. "Many of the examples Cole provides read like horror stories of a justice system run amok," wrote Jeffrey Dillman in the Antioch Review. A Publishers Weekly contributor called No Equal Justice "a well-argued, passionate plea for an unabashedly liberal program to fight crime while honoring the constitution's protection of individual rights."

Cole's Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism was called "a compassionate and compelling book about the U.S. government's discrimination against aliens since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001," by American Museum Voice Web site contributor Elaine Cassel. Here, the author looks at how the U.S. government uses a double standard in its treatment of citizens versus the more than five thousand foreign nationals it has detained since the terrorist attacks of 2001. With little or no proof against many of them concerning their relationship to terrorist activities, the U.S. government, according to Cole, has used guilt by association, ethnic profiling, and secret searches and wiretaps without probable cause of criminality to detain these individuals.

While Cole discusses such issues as the George W. Bush Administration's overreaction to the terrorist attacks, and other examples of similar reactions to threats throughout American history, the author focuses primarily on Guantanamo Bay, where 650 "enemy combatants" have been kept. The government maintains that these individuals do not deserve many basic legal rights given even to illegal aliens in the United States, including a right to an attorney or a hearing, unless the government deigns to give them either. Cole presents his case as to why it is important to give these captives the same legal rights given to others in the United States, pointing out that once a government starts denying rights to "enemy combatants," other groups could be next, even citizens of the United States. He also asserts that the government's policies concerning these prisoners and others does not make America safer.

"Enemy Aliens is laudable for making a clear case that the civil and human rights violations that immigrants have endured during the war on terror are egregious constitutional transgressions with global implications," attested Will Pittz in Colorlines. Writing in the Progressive, Saurav Sarkar noted that the author reveals "the dangers that the … Administration's policies pose to citizens and noncitizens."

A Kirkus Reviews contributor called Cole's next book, Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror, "a resounding argument contra administration policy." Written with Jules Lobel, the book reveals a U.S. government headed by President George W. Bush that is reminiscent of the thriller Minority Report, written by noted science fiction novelist Philip K. Dick. Much like the sci-fi scenario in which psychic techniques are used to predict future crimes, the authors note that the Bush administration makes similar predictions, albeit without the use of psychics, to cut corners on fundamental issues concerning the U.S. Constitution and rules of law.

Pointing to the Bush administration's pursuit of war against Iraq against the wishes of the United Nations Security Council, the authors argue that such actions as torturing of prisoners and whisking away suspects to foreign detention centers to avoid their troublesome legal rights have made the U.S. more susceptible to future terrorist attacks. However, the authors also point out that the problem did not originate with the Bush administration. It has been an issue with several previous administrations, as well. Cole and Lobel, who are both experts on constitutional law, argue that it is the rule of law that, in fact, will make the U.S. safer to terrorist attacks in the long run. "All of this book makes for compelling reading," wrote Scott Horton in Harper's magazine. Cody Corliss commented in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazetter that the authors "argue eloquently and forcefully that preventive war makes flawed foreign policy."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Alaska Justice Forum, winter, 2007, John Riley, "Terrorism and the Constitution: Security, Civil Rights, and the War on Terror," review of Terrorism & the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security.

American Journal of Criminal Law, fall, 1999, Erin McGrath, review of No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System, pp. 133-138.

American Journal of International Law, April, 2000, Barry Kellman, review of Terrorism & the Constitution, p. 434.

Antioch Review, spring, 2000, Jeffrey Dillman, review of No Equal Justice, p. 242.

Booklist, January 1, 1999, Mary Carroll, review of No Equal Justice, p. 802.

Bookwatch, June, 2004, "The New Press," review of Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism, p. 7.

Choice, September, 1999, M.A. Foley, review of No Equal Justice, p. 234; January, 2003, R.A. Carp, review of Terrorism & the Constitution, p. 904; September, 2003, review of Terrorism & the Constitution, p. 82.

Colorlines, fall, 2004, Will Pittz, review of Enemy Aliens, p. 43.

Connecticut Journal of International Law, spring, 2004, Elizabeth M. McCormick, review of Enemy Aliens, pp. 423-443.

Contemporary Sociology, May, 2001, Spencer Hope Dennis, review of No Equal Justice, p. 291.

Cornell International Law Journal, spring, 2003, George C. Harris, review of Terrorism & the Constitution, p. 135.

Economist, February 19, 2000, review of No Equal Justice, p. 7.

Georgetown Law Journal, November, 1999, Edward McGlynn Gaffney, review of No Equal Justice, p. 115.

Harper's, October 31, 2007, Scott Horton, "Rethinking the War on Terror," review of Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror.

Harvard Law Review, May, 1999, review of No Equal Justice, p. 1798.

Journal of College and University Law, March, 2004, Juan E. Mendez, review of Enemy Aliens, p. 493.

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2007, review of Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror.

Michigan Law Review, May, 2000, Mark D. Rosenbaum, review of No Equal Justice, p. 1941.

New York Review of Books, October 23, 2003, Anthony Lewis, "Un-American Activities," review of Enemy Aliens, p. 16.

Ohio Northern University Law Review, winter, 2000, Harvey Gee, review of No Equal Justice, pp. 29-66.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette, January 06, 2008, Cody Corliss, review of Less Safe, Less Free.

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

Prairie Schooner, summer, 2003, review of Terrorism & the Constitution, p. 320.

Progressive, May, 1999, Dustin Beilke, review of No Equal Justice, p. 41; April, 2004, Saurav Sarkar, review of Enemy Aliens, p. 43.

Publishers Weekly, November 30, 1998, review of No Equal Justice, p. 56; August 25, 2003, review of Enemy Aliens, p. 56.

Race and Class, April-June, 2004, Nancy Murray, review of Enemy Aliens, p. 97.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 2007, review of Less Safe, Less Free.

Times Higher Education Supplement, December 12, 2003, Laurence Lustgarten, "Foreign Fears Hit Home," review of Enemy Aliens, p. 27.

Trial, August, 1999, Donald A. Dripps, review of No Equal Justice, p. 72.

ONLINE

American Muslim Voice Web site,http://www.amvoice-two.amuslimvoice.org/ (October 31, 2003), Elaine Cassel, "A Review of David Cole's Enemy Aliens: Why Citizens Should be Concerned When Their Government Mistreats Aliens."

Buzz Flash,http://www.buzzflash.com/ (February 15, 2008), review of Less Safe, Less Free.

Center for American Progress Action Fund Web site,http://www.americanprogressaction.org/ (February 15, 2008), brief profile of David Cole.

Democracy Now,http://www.democracynow.org/ (September 11, 2007), Amy Goodman, "As Nation Marks Sixth 9/11 Anniversary, a Look at ‘Why America Is Losing the War on Terror,’" interview with David Cole.

Georgetown University Law Center Web site,http://www.law.georgetown.edu/ (February 15, 2008), faculty profile of David Cole.

Nation Online,http://www.thenation.com/ (February 15, 2008), brief profile of David Cole.

Open Society Institute & Soros Foundation Network Web site, (February 15, 2008), brief profile of David Cole.