A Report from the Chair

This edition of Human Rights magazine addresses the critical issue of privacy in the age of computers. The rapid proliferation of personal computers, and the creation of the Internet and gargantuan electronic databases have created unparalleled opportunities for the dissemination of personal and private information throughout our society. The issue editors of this edition, R. Hayes Johnson, Jr. and Harlan A. Loeb, have assembled a collection of articles that address some of the most salient electronic privacy issues affecting us today. I hope you find it interesting.

Now Is the Time to Get Involved in IRR

One of the most common questions asked of the Chair of the ABA Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities (IRR) is: How do I get involved in the activities of the Section?

One way is by volunteering to serve in a leadership position. The Section is led by an Executive Committee, consisting of five officers, the Section’s delegate to the ABA House of Delegates, and the Section Council, comprised of the Executive Committee, twelve elected members, and liaisons from the Law Student Division, the Young Lawyers Division, and the ABA Board of Governors. In addition, the Section is comprised of seventeen committees, each with its own leadership, covering a wide array of substantive human rights areas; the Editorial Board for Human Rights magazine; and liaisons to at least twenty other ABA-related entities.

Officer and Council member candidates are selected by the Section’s five-member nominating committee. The nominating committee will meet in March 1999 to determine the slate of nominees that will be submitted to the membership at the Section’s annual meeting, which will be held during the 1999 ABA Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA. The 1999 election will be held on August 6 at 4:00 p.m. All Section members are invited and encouraged to attend and participate. It will be a good opportunity to meet and greet Section and ABA officers. There will be a reception immediately following the meeting.

Those nominated to the Council historically have been active members of the Section, in the capacity of committee chairs or in other programmatic areas, or those who have in some other way, demonstrated their interest and commitment to civil rights and civil liberties. If you are interested in being considered by the nominating committee for an officer or Council position, please contact either me or Section Director, Penny Wakefield, at the Section office in Washington, D.C.

Next year’s Section committee chairs, vice-chairs, and liaisons will be appointed to one-year terms by current Section Chair-Elect, Jim Coleman, during the next several months. It is Jim’s goal to complete the appointment process by the end of May 1999 for the upcoming ABA year (which runs from August 1999 through August 2000). If you are interested in participating as a committee chair or vice-chair, or as the Section’s liaison to a particular ABA entity, contact either Jim or the Section’s Assistant Director, Hector Vargas, who coordinates committee activities and can provide information about committee work and liaison assignments.

Section members interested in becoming more involved with the Section through committee work should contact the committee chairs directly. Contact information for Section and committee leadership and the staff office is listed on the inside back cover of this magazine.

Thurgood Marshall Award

I would be remiss, if I did not take this opportunity to also provide information about another excellent opportunity to meet Section and ABA leaders and participate actively in one of the Section’s major annual events: The Thurgood Marshall Award Dinner held at the ABA Annual Meeting each year. The Thurgood Marshall Award is the only ABA award that recognizes long-term contributions to the furtherance of civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights in the United States. As an attorney in the early years of the civil rights movement, Thurgood Marshall set a standard for excellence and effectiveness by which others are measured. As a Supreme Court Justice, he was a forceful and constant voice for the protection and advancement of individual rights in this country.

IRR is seeking nominations for the 1999 Thurgood Marshall Award. Nominees should be judges or duly licensed members of the bar in good standing, with a history of substantial and long-term contributions to furthering civil rights, civil liberties, or human rights in the United States. In exceptional circumstances, a nominee who is not a lawyer may be considered. The award will be presented at the Thurgood Marshall Award Dinner on Saturday, August 7, 1999, at the ABA Annual Meeting, in Atlanta, GA.

Past honorees have included Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (the first recipient), Honorable Frank M. Johnson, Jr., Oliver W. Hill, Ralph S. Abscal, Jack Greenberg, and Stephen B. Bright.

Nomination packets may be obtained from the IRR Section staff office. Feel free to contact the staff office for additional information or nomination forms. Please note that the nomination deadline is Monday, March 1, 1999.

I look forward to seeing you in Los Angeles for the ABA Midyear Meeting and in Atlanta for the ABA Annual Meeting.

—Walter H. White, Jr.

1998-99 IRR Section Chair