Longtime political commentator and self-described “contrarian,” Christopher Hitchens,
will participate in a forum, “Democracy, the Constitution and the War,” on
Tuesday, May 20, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nott Memorial.
Also
featured will be Jamin Raskin, professor of constitutional law at American
University Washington College of Law. Raskin is a former assistant attorney
general of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and served on the Gore legal team during the Election
2000 recount.
Sponsors of the event are Union College's Philosophy and Pre-Law clubs, and the Political
Science and Philosophy departments, the Minerva Committee, and the Dean of
Students Intellectual Enrichment Grant. A reception will follow in Hale House
dining room. The event is free and open to the public.
For more than 20 years, Hitchens has been a leading
figure on the international political scene. Most recently he resigned as a
regular contributor for The Nation because
of his support of the war in Iraq. His provocative essays and analyses have appeared
in such publications as Harper's,
Newsday, The London Review of
Books, Dissent and the Times Literary Supplement. Hitchens is
the author, co-author, or editor of more than 40 books including The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Why Orwell Matters,
and Letters to a Young Contrarian.
Raskin established the Marshall-Brennan Fellowship
Program at American University's Washington College of Law, which sends law students out into Washington, D.C., public high schools to teach constitutional literacy.
Raskin is a public-interest lawyer who has represented clients as diverse as
the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Ross Perot, Ralph Nader, Greenpeace, and United
Students Against Sweatshops. He is the author of Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court vs. the American People, and
We the Students: Supreme Court Decisions
For and About Students.