CONSTITUTION PROJECT

Results: For more than fifteen years the Constitution Project has brought together political leaders, legal scholars, and issue experts of all partisan affiliations to move the ball forward in our country's thorniest policy debates. The members of our bipartisan committees, from Jimmy Carter's Vice President to Ronald Reagan's Attorney General to George H.W. Bush's Director of the FBI to Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff, work together to reach consensus on the most controversial questions of the day and issue policy recommendations built on principle and not partisan ideology. Bipartisan committees convened under the auspices of our Rule of Law and Criminal Justice programs have produced groundbreaking recommendations for reform on the following subjects: war powers, capital punishment, habeas corpus for "enemy combatants," warrantless wiretapping, government watch lists, public video surveillance, constitutional amendments, judicial independence, indigent defense, immigration, and criminal sentencing. We have also organized one-of-a-kind events on a number of important legal issues. These programs have featured some of our nation's most influential government officials and jurists, including Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, former Solicitor General Seth Waxman, former Director of the FBI William S. Sessions, former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, chairman of the American Conservative Union David Keene, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Charlie Savage and Linda Greenhouse, and political commentator Charlie Cook.

Direct beneficiaries per year: Last year, TCP directly helped to restore funding for the Federal Defender Services in the face of sequestration and budget cuts through a coordinated campaign to raise awareness of the funding crisis and build bipartisan support for increased funding

Geographic areas served: Washington, DC

Programs: Founded in 1997, our method is to convene committees and task forces consisting of policy experts, thought leaders, and legal practitioners from across the political spectrum to conduct principled inquiries and develop credible policy recommendations. The resulting reports and recommendations are the product of careful research, analysis, and deliberation. TCP then promotes and advances these bipartisan policy solutions through a wide range of channels—providing assistance and influencing outcomes within all three branches of government, as well as among industry representatives, news media, and our numerous advocacy partners.