ACS Names Edelman as New Board Chair

Updated 4:41 p.m.

The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy has named Peter Edelman as the new chair of its board of directors.

Edelman, a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center and director of the school’s Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy, said that in his new position, he would help to engage a younger audience about how the law can improve the lives of everyday citizens.

“What we want to do is promote a conversation — the idea of what a progressive perspective of the constitution is and what it means for the country,” Edelman said.

Edelman said the group would also continue toward its goal of bettering the lives of people through advocating different legislative and legal battles. The group is particularly interested in the viability of the Affordable Care Act, which soon will be argued before the Supreme Court. He said the continued implementation of the Dodd-Frank law is also an issue that deserves attention.

“There is really a very serious political and to some extent court-related challenge to the implementation of the new aspects of regulation that are in that legislation,” Edelman said of Dodd-Frank. “These are serious legal and constitutional questions where the substance should be discussed in an intelligent way that is accessible to millions of people in our country.”

Edelman replaces University of Chicago constitutional law professor Geoffrey Stone, who will remain on the board. Edelman has been a member of the board since 2009. He served as a counselor and assistant secretary for planning and evaluation to Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala during President Bill Clinton’s first term. He also served as a legislative assistant to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and was issues director for Sen. Edward Kennedy during his 1980 presidential campaign.

Comments

[Tim Morgan]

I hope they're taking a close look at the anachronistic perversions perpetrated through the fiction of corporate personhood.