ABA POLICY-MAKING BODY TO CONSIDER PROPOSALS ABOUT PRESIDENTIAL SIGNING STATEMENTS,
EXECUTION OF THE MENTALLY DISABLED, ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE AND MORE

CHICAGO, July 13, 2006 – What is the appropriate role of presidential signing statements in our democracy? How should states that impose capital punishment treat defendants who have severe mental limitations, disabilities or disorders? How can audit standards be defined to ensure that companies report reliable financial information to auditors in a manner that preserves the work product doctrine and attorney-client privilege? The American Bar Association policy-making House of Delegates will contemplate recommendations about these issues and others during the ABA Annual Meeting Aug. 3 - 8 in Honolulu.

The House will meet 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.(HADT) on Monday, Aug. 7, and 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 8, at the Hawaii Convention Center, Kalakaua Ballroom, 4th floor. The list of recommendations filed for consideration by the House is available at http://www.abanet.org/leadership/2006/annual/SUMMARY_OF_RECS.DOC. Additional late reports to the House also are expected to be filed. Highlights of proposals to the House include:

The Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine, appointed by ABA President Michael S. Greco this year, is expected to present a late report to the House addressing when and how U.S. presidents should use signing statements without posing a challenge to the separation of powers doctrine.

The House also will consider Recommendation 122A, which would urge jurisdictions that impose capital punishment not to execute or sentence to death defendants who have significant limitations on their intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior or have a severe mental disorder or disability. Developed by a task force that included lawyers and mental health professionals, this proposal already has been adopted by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association.

The Task Force on Attorney-Client Privilege is expected to file a late report to the House that will seek to ensure that corporate financial audits do not erode the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine. If passed, the recommendation would urge corporate regulators and professional auditors to develop standards, policies and procedures that would balance the public’s interest in preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine with its interest in reliable financial reporting and effective audits.

The House also will host a panel discussion at 11 a.m. on Aug. 7 titled: “Liberty vs. Security.” Distinguished guests will debate the difficult constitutional and legal questions raised by efforts to keep the United States safe from unprecedented terrorist threats, while protecting civil liberties and individual rights vital to American democracy. Panelists include Catherine Crier, Court TV anchor, writer and former Texas judge; Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, dean of the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law and former general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency; Neal Sonnett, a former assistant U.S. attorney and chief of the criminal division for the Southern District of Florida; and John Yoo, professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law and former deputy assistant attorney general.

Among additional proposals to the House are recommendations that would:

• Urge federal, state, and territorial jurisdictions to provide legal counsel as a matter of right at public expense to low-income persons in adversarial proceedings where basic human needs are at stake, such as those involving shelter, sustenance, safety, health and child custody (Recommendation 112A);
• Seek to reduce reliance on incarceration, reduce recidivism, and smooth offenders’ transition from prison back to society (Recommendations 300A – 300F). An online media kit about these proposals is available at http://www.abavideonews.org/ABA360/;
• Support multinational cooperation and consultation in the formulation of national laws and policies relating to migration and urge the U. S. government to enter into regional and international discussion and agreements governing the flow of workers (Recommendation 123B);
• Adopt the ABA Criminal Justice Standards on DNA Evidence, which address the collection, preservation, use and testing of DNA evidence;
• Revise Standards 210 -212 of the Standards for the Approval of Law Schools and the Interpretations of the Standards concerning equal opportunity and diversity (Recommendation 106B). Resources about revisions to these standards are available at http://www.abanet.org/media/legaled/home.shtml;
• Urge all state, territorial and local bar associations to work with national, state and territorial bar examiners, law schools, universities and elementary and secondary schools to address significant problems facing minorities within the pipeline to the profession (Recommendation 113).

Accredited reporters are welcome to cover the ABA Annual Meeting for free and can register online until July 24 at http://www.abanet.org/media/meetings/annual06.html.

Credentialing guidelines for reporters who wish to cover the meeting are at http://www.abanews.org/credentials.html. During the Annual Meeting a press room for working journalists will be in the Hawaii Convention Center, Third Floor, Room 324. It will open for on-site media registration at noon on Thursday, Aug. 3, and daily thereafter at 8 a.m. It will close one hour after the adjournment of the House of Delegates on Tuesday, Aug. 8. Beginning Aug. 3, the Press Room phone number will be 808/792-6622.

The American Bar Association House of Delegates is the association’s policy making body. The 549 delegates represent states and territories, ABA entities, state and local bar associations, affiliated organizations and other constituencies.

With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law in a democratic society.

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