Pakistan was sending a temporary hospital that includes army doctors, surgeons, and specialists, along with readytoeat meal packs and water and medicine, tents and other items. Yesterday, the United States pledged an additional 1 million for humanitarian assistance and said that the usa id was the point the Disaster Assistance response team. The search and rescue team also being activated to accompany disaster experts and assist with assessments of the situation. Remarkable partnerships. Magnetic women. Their stories and first ladies the book. She said her portion portrait washington india her to the nation. What she was doing, what she looked like, she thought that was going to help sell papers. She takes over a Radio Station and then she starts running it. How do you do that . And she did it. She exerted enormous influence because she would move a mountain to make sure that her husband was protected. First ladies now a book. Looking inside the personal life of every worst lady in american history, based on original interviews from cspans first lady series. What about the lives, ambitions, families, and unique partnerships with her president ial spouses. First ladies present will historians on the lives of 45 iconic american women. Filled with lies a fantastic women who survived the scrutiny of the white house sometimes at a great personal cost and often changing history. Cspans first ladies is an illuminating and inspiring read. Now available as a hardcover or ebook to your favorite bookstore or online bookseller. On wednesday evening the constitution project hosted its annual constitution champions gala here in washington, d. C. Honorees included senator Patrick Leahy of vermont and senator rand paul of kentucky. Twitter was recognized for his leadership and work in defending the constitution, and in particular Digital Privacy issues and changing the mandatory sentencing policy and National Security. This is just over an hour. Virginia if people can take their seats, we are just about to get started. Good evening. Im virginia sloan and im president of the constitution product. Im delighted to welcome me here to our eighth annual gala honoring this years constitutional champions. Senators Patrick Leahy and rand paul and twitter for their work in the areas of criminal justice, detainee treatment, and privacy reform. I want to especially welcome our past champions who are here tonight. Judges bill session and bill shields. [applause] virginia what acrimony seems to pervade so much of politics today, the constitution project constraints that it doesnt always have to be that way. Obviously, individuals ideological factions and organizations may and do disagree vehemently about what the constitution means, but for nearly two decades ccp has surmounted many of these disagreements by sponsoring groups of experts from across the ideological spectrum to seek constitutional consensus. It is the bipartisan and inclusive nature of our work that lends it such credibility and influence. This year, we are focusing on three vital areas. First, how can we maintain Public Safety while ensuring that our government exercises its Law Enforcement and National Security powers in a fair, humane, and constitutional manner . We know that systemic failures in our criminal Justice System at a high, individual, economic, and societal cost. Especially since 9 11, the growth of our National Security apparatus is threatening some of our most basic rights and protections. Our second area of focus is how we should safeguard personal information, privacy, and the First Amendment rights that are increasingly affected by rapid sophisticated, and complex technological innovation. Finding a balance between privacy and Civil Liberties and our need for security is a constant, longtime struggle. Given new technology, it is increasingly easy for the government to monitor our personal lives and it is more important than ever that a Constitutional Rights still apply in the digital age. Our third area of focus is how can we make government more open and accountable. Sadly, it seems like the governments ended practice now is one of nondisclosure. Since an informed citizen jury citizenry is vital to our government, ccp is working to break down barriers to Government Transparency and facilitating the oversight to monitor what our government does in our name. I would like to highlight some specific of vandals of our work for best examples of our work before returning to awards. Two years ago, our Bipartisan Group of task force believes the 600 page report examining the treatment of suppressive suspected terrorists in the clinton, bush, and obama administrations. The task force and staff of ccp thoroughly examined Public Records and interviews conducted on the ground factfinding all over the world. A report remains the most comprehensive of its kind. The Task Force Made three alarming findings. First, the u. S. Personnel engaged in torture. Second, the decision to torture was made of the highest levels of government. And third, the Public Record contains no Persuasive Evidence that torture produced significant information of value. As with all of our reports, we use this one to further our education and advocacy workers Task Force Members supported by ccp staff use the expertise influence, and access to persistently Lobby Congress and the administration to make public the Senate IntelligenceCommunity Report on the cia detention and interrogation program. Finally last december, a declassified executive summary was publicly released. Its findings and recommendations closely mirrored those of our own task force. Unfortunately, the executive branch appears to be largely ignoring the Senate Report and some in Congress Actually want to have it withdrawn from public view. Incredibly representatives of most of the affected executive branch agencies, including the justice, the state, and the fbi admit that they have not even bother to open their copies. It is long past time to declassified all relevant information about post9 11 detainee abuses. Tcp polling shows that americans oppose the abuses. We must understand what went wrong so that it can never happen again. And so our work in this area will continue. [laughter] thank you. Task force members and tcp staff have also supported critical steps to closing guantanamo. Both the bush and obama administrations have made some progress including a wealthy uptake on transfers last year. Detain transfers have sloan again. And some in Congress Seems set on either harsher restrictions that will ensure that get no remains open. It is an outrage that 122 detainees remain untried at guantanamo. The half of them all ready cleared to be transferred by every relevant National Security agency. Our definitely workers are another example of our consensusbuilding. We have brought together supporters and opponents of Capital Punishment to ensure that a country addresses the inaccuracies and injustices that plague the system. Last may, our Death Penalty committee issued a comprehensive report and 39 recommendations condemning the systems flaws from arrest to execution. Texas death row survivor anthony gray stated that had our recommendations been in place when he was convicted, he would not have spent 18 years on death row for a crime he did not commit. And too many capital cases, a scope of tory evidence is withheld. Defense lawyers are illequipped and outmatched. Deadlines are inexcusable he missed. Racial disparities persist. And people with intellectual disabilities face the ultimate punishment. In recommending a National Commitment to improve friends in science, the report also for shadows the fbis recent acknowledgment that decades of flawed forensic testimony affects the integrity of thousands of individuals convictions. The fbis microscopic hair analysts overstated matches in 96 of the cases reviewed so far. This includes 32 cases in which defendants were sentenced to death. 14 of whom have already been executed or they died in prison. And then theres privacy. Even before the snowden revelations, we were working to update various laws that were dramatically outdated in the face of new technology. Our bipartisan committees are demanding disclosure of and stick limits on government snooping. And act amending that Law Enforcement obtained warrants to access this information. We are pleased to work not only with the privacy community and government, but also with Technology Companies who are often caught in the know of these battles. Middle of these battles. This past year, we help build rating ample collection of our telephone records for making the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court more transparent and accountable. We appreciate senator leahy and his staff for their tireless efforts to ensure that congress adopts these reforms. And all these areas and more, it is our mission to assemble the unlikeliest of allies to promote consensus on vexing constitutional questions. We are looking at the consequences of collecting dna from people who have not been charged with a crime. We have testified before the president s 21st Century Task Force on policing about constitutional principles that policymakers must consider before equipping state and local Police Body Cameras and military equipment. We just issued a report condemning one of the most common and overlook constituent constitutional deprivations experienced by poor people accused of crimes. The denial of counsel when a judge determines whether the accused will be incarcerated prior to trial. Because of our Mutual Mission having kids and state campaigns constantly seek our help advocates and sting campaigns constantly seek our help. As they did last december when we assembled over a National Best dozen nationally recommends conservative leaders simply cant see for Scott Kennedy because of the severe mental illness, is as efficient fortunately has not been state. Litigants, including many here tonight, think it is important to organize importance of pink cases, briefs that are influential and there are former judges and prosecutors in National Security experts and other prominent and often unlikely voices. He probably just read about one of these cases. Anthony ray hansen was exonerated in early april after spending nearly three decades on alabamas death row because his recorded for lawyer his courtappointed lawyer didnt know enough to ask the court for enough money to hire a qualified forensic expert. Before turning to our awards, i want to thank jonas day for lending us this amazing spanners and i want to thank our many sponsors for this evening and especially those at the defender level bloomberg and twitter. I want to thank our board of directors for their expertise and support in the tireless tcp staff. I want to particular bank the creative and indomitable lisa banks, jenny donnelly, and brian doris further work on the scale of. On this gala. Thanks to all who are here and support our mission. Finally, think thank you to our constitutional champions who stand up for the constitution and the rights of us all. For more about our first honoree , senator Patrick Leahy, please welcome debo patrick adegbile. His biography of his and speaking others will be in the program. So let me welcome him to the stage. [applause] debo ordinarily i would ask for that step to come back here, but since we are amongst friends, i will dispatch with that. Good evening. It is a great pleasure to be here with you and to be here celebrating the constitution project and the important work. But it a special pleasure to be here to present an award to my mentor friend, and former employer senator Patrick Leahy. Senator leahy by every measure is a constitutional champions and tonight, i will speak just briefly about some of the reasons why we know that to be the case. As a center, a center, a former chairman of the judiciary committee, as a Ranking Member center, senator leahy always equips himself as a man of principle and commitment and some of the who believes in the rule of law and the constitutional rules that we set for ourselves. Most recently together with another one of our honorees this evening, senator rand paul, senator leahy is a cosponsor of the Justice Sadie bob back safety valve act, a measure which is intended to restore a measure of fairness and discretion to justice as they seek to sentence people in the context of mandatory minimums. In a post9 11 world, senator leahy has lent his voice to the rule of law and the tensions that we face with respect to our constitution and the need to keep the nation safe. Standard leahy has been in all these discussions and has been a central figure in all the legislation that we contemplate and has elevated our commitment to our principles even in the most harrowing times. But one unmistakable aspect of senator leahys leadership with respect to the constitution is that he is not just somebody who voices the important principles of the constitution, but he asked and bipartisan fashion to make sure that laws are enacted to vindicate those principles. In the context of the Voting Rights act, senator leahy was a tireless voice in the 2006 reauthorization and helped to get that legislation signed. I had an opportunity to collaborate with senator leahy and the staff and i know that it would not have been signed but for his stalwart effort. In another context collaborating with senator orrin hatch, senator leahy has made sure that there is access for postconviction people who are sent sentenced to capital crimes to have dna testing done, to bring up greater measure of awareness to people who faced the most severe penalty that are criminal system meets out. Senator leahy, it is a happy evening for me to be here and to raise tribute to you. I think when this award was named it mustve been named with men like you in mind. I thank you for your leadership, for your commitment, for your example, for your friendship for the opportunity to stand with you in good times and more harrowing times. I welcome senator Patrick Leahy to the podium to accept the constitutional champion award. [applause] [applause] sen. Leahy thank you. Thank you very much for that introduction. Verio. There we go. [indiscernible] sen. Leahy thank you very very much for that instruction. You know, i was thinking as i listened to your opening on this. We are dealing with people here who have actually read the constitution. What a wonderful, wonderful feeling that is. And debo, you are a hero in our family. You are a hero to so many of us here. I know Christine Lucius is here. David carl, Kevin Mcdonnell and others for my office. We think of you as a hero. He once said that the goal of the constitution was to form a more Perfect Union was inspirational but also aspirational. I know that i speak for many in this room when i say your dedication serving the public good and defend the constitution on behalf of all americans is an inspiration. You did the constitution for all americans even if it might cost you in your own career. He stood up for the constitution. I cant think of anything that i admire more in a person than that. And i would admire you even if your middle name wasnt patrick. [laughter] [applause] sen. Leahy but i admire you for doing that. And i think everybody here knows what im talking about. That is why we all admire you. A few years ago, i chose to stay at the home of the Senate Judiciary committee. The sessions i did that because i thought allowed me to defend the constitution and judge, thank you for being here. That is why it is such an honor to be recognized by the constitution project tonight. We worked arm in arm for so many years. We worked to defeat legislation that was there to limit the right of habeas corpus. Can you imagine . We fought them and we won. We fought to end torture and secret detention. Not because just the wrong thing to do, but it was basically unamerican and we fought it. We fought to provide Adequate Funding for public defenders something i believe strongly in and i spent eight years as a prosecutor. I wanted to see good public defenders. We passed the innocence protection act. And of the number of people who are on death row who are now free and the person who actually committed the crime is behind bars. Doesnt that speak to what america should be back . We have to push our great nation to live up to the ideals of the constitution is not just the gulf. Its not something that happens automatically. I think our founders knew that we had to fight for that every single day. Persistence, determination and unrelenting commitment to core american values. It also means that sometimes you have got to admit we make mistakes. Our nation has faced times of great fear and stress. We sometimes reacted in ways that strayed from our Core Principles of democracy and freedom. But in the greatness of our countries history we can learn from our mistakes and make sure that we dont repeat them. We shouldnt hide the errors of the past. We have had them. Other countries may try to hide them. We are america. We dont hide them. Admit them. And learn from them. And get better. That is why the founders designed the constitution that contained a way to improve it. Each generation has done just that. We have improved the original document by guaranteeing protection for individuals, by expanding the franchise. By protecting many freedoms that we hold dear, by acknowledging the fact that all human beings are human beings. All. No matter who they are. Men or women, no matter the color of their skin, no matter who they are, we are all americans and we are all human beings. And we are reminded of this progress as we prepared to celebrate the one 50th anniversary of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments the second founding of commemoration which are mine was a forming a more Perfect Union. Every generation has to do that. We have made great progress in the last two and a half centuries. The things that we accepted when the constitution was written we would not accept today. Women were considered secondclass citizens. Can you imagine back of the fact that we was secondrate base on the color of arson can you imagine . The fact that we would segregate based on the color of skin . Can you imagine . And in your comments, he spoke of the great errors that we have made in the recent decades with the cias use of torture and secret prisons in the wake of the september 11 terrorist attacks. These things were done to make us safer. They do not make us safer. I would argue they demeaned the greatest nation on earth. It was wrong. It should have never happened. [applause] it was a borat, it was wrong and president obama ended the program the day he took office. He fully understood what happened. We have the work of the Senate Select committee on intelligence and i commend Dianne Feinstein on this we finally found out what happened. It was not easy to shed light on this, that when we did, we demonstrated to the rest of the world that we are different. We are a great nation in part because we are always trying to do better. Our government has gone too far intruding on americans privacy rights in the name of countering terrorism. Something senator paul and i have talked about many times. In 2013, we learn the nsa had been engaging in the dragnet collection of private telephone records for years relying on a deeply flawed interpretation of section 215 of the usa patriot act. We found out it did not keep us safer from terrorists attacks. I asked how many terrorist attacks and they said 52. Maybe 20, 12, well, eight. There was one we were involved in after the fbi had found the people. Section 215 expires in a few short weeks. Some want to just expanded. I want to work with republicans and democrats for some real reform. I think we have to end the Bulk Collection Program once and for all. It is not what we are as americans. It does not make us safer and it is no good to give this to the next generation. [applause] then, we passed mandatory minimum sentencing laws. That has not ate us safer. It has driven the federal prison population to extraordinary highs, a nearly 800 increase in 30 years, a third of our justice departments budget is in the bureau of prisons, not in going after terminals, not in stopping terrorists. These laws do not help us. I oppose all mandatory minimums. [applause] lets restore discretion to judging. You will find this is something that will unite people in the right and the left. Rand, i think you will agree with that. Senator rand paul and i introduced the justice safety valve act to restore discretion to judges and restore sanity to our system. Its not because judges will be right every single time, of course they will make a mistake, but to pass a law and say onesizefitsall is foolish. It is wrong. It does not help our country. As a former prosecutor, im opposed to it. The president has power under the constitution to offer clemency to those harmed by mandatory sentences. With very little time left in this administration, i hope the president will step up with this and say lets change this, but ive spoken to long and im preaching to the converted on so many things. [laughter] but, dam it, its nice. [applause] to be with the converted, its nice to be sharing this award with my dear friend, rand paul. It is nice to have people who actually care about the constitution. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you so much, senator leahy. And now to present the award to senator paul, i would like to introduce my dear friend, one of my oldest friends, julie stewart, the president and founder of families against mandatory minimums. I want to tell one story to embarrass julie. Her husband who is here somewhere, he is the dean at the university of baltimore law school. I went to their wedding how many years ago . 20 some odd years ago. Even at that time, one of their valves was they would always Work Together to obtain criminal Justice Reform. [laughter] it was a strange wedding vow but from ron and julie, it is what they do and it is who they are. I cannot think of a better person to present the award to senator paul. [applause] julie i did not expect that but yes, our valves did did involve sentencing. Thank you so much for this tremendous honor youve given me in introducing senator rand paul, one of the recipients of the 2015 constitutional champions award. If you look up senator rand paulss official bio as i did to prepare for these remarks you will read he was born in pittsburgh, he was raised in texas, he went to tailor for human to medical school at duke and yada yada. Thats what they want you to believe, but im not buying it. After looking at senator pauls record, ive decided theres a different theory. I believe senator paul was created in a secret laboratory by scientists working for jenny sloan in the constitution project. Hear me out on this. For years, the constitution project has defended the guarantee of due process and champion the separation of powers that prevents overreaching president s from infringing on our basic freedoms. Then, seemingly out of nowhere and ophthalmologist from kentucky comes as a champion of liberty so wellversed in the constitution and shatters the status quo by standing on the floor of the senate for 13 hours in order to remind colleagues and fellow citizens of the importance, the necessity as near sanctity of the rule of law. How did that just happened . The constitution project has fought government surveillance and intrusion of individual privacy, and yet in just a few years, senator rand paul has become a leading critic of nsa surveillance programs and other unconstitutional government snooping schemes. Go figure. Closer to my heart, the constitution project has got to build bipartisan support for criminal Justice Reform, including harsh but unnecessary sentencing laws. Rand paul coauthors with senator Patrick Leahy, an ambitious proposal called the justice safety valve act that would restore sentencing to where it belongs, not in the politicians hands in washington, but enhance of courts across this country. My theory does not sound so strange now. And theres one more thing jenny sloan in the constitution project have always believed safeguarding Constitutional Values can only be done by bringing together people from diverse Political Parties and spectrums and to find consensus solutions to the most contentious issues. They are right, of course so how lucky to have found senator paul, a leader who proves you can be passionate and still pleasant, a champion who expresses bold ideas in a plainspoken and civil manner. Thank you, senator paul, for reminding us, politicians advocates and citizens alike that we can disagree without being disagreeable. I have had the privilege of working directly with senator paul as the board of mandatory minimum sentencing reforms and i have then in meetings where he of told conservative advocates for me not to be named think tank that they cant just support whitecollar sentencing reform. They must support reform for all people of all colors, including nonviolent drug offenders. [applause] i saw senator paul hoskin event when he crossed the capital to meet with the house members of both parties to express his opposition to an unjust but very popular mandatory sentencing proposal. Senator pauls support for criminal justice support has received a lot of media attention, but it is what is done behind the scenes that he is doing without being seen that has impressed me the most and makes me very grateful he is on my side. Senator paul is without a doubt a champion of the constitution and, so even if you dont believe, as i do, that jenny and Company Created him for this award, i think you will agree this award was made for him. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce senator rand paul. [applause] seantor paul thank you. It really is an honor to be here with the constitution project and share this with senator leahy, or to get an award the same night as senator leahy. Thank you for making this happen. Martin luther king wrote in the letter from birmingham jail about what an unjust law was. It is a code the numerical majority passes on a minority but does not make binding on themselves. For too long in this country the law was overtly unjust based on the color of your skin. This time has fortunately passed and, for the most part, we have abandoned injustice du jour, but i believe we still suffer injustice the fact though. Theres injustice in the criminal Justice System, intentional or unintentional, it still exists. I dont think is a conscious effort. Weve had some discussion the fbi director talked about how he had to be careful of racial insensitive or racially profiling people. I think that is important, but when we see the disparities, i dont think the disparities are coming from an overt racism. Nevertheless, there is a disproportionate impact, there has there is something gone awry in the criminal Justice System when you look at those who are incarcerated. I was always someone whos kind of doubtful about the war on drugs, but i became more aware of the racial implications after i read Michelle Alexanders mass incarceration, the new jim crow. Its a for found indictment of our cruel Justice System. Despite consistent evidence that white kids and black kids use drugs at about the same rate three out of four kids in jail are black or brown for nonviolent drugs. I think we missed the boat if we say this is just racism. I think more likely, the ultimate source of this is poor people tend to live close together, theres more crime in cities, and the police are there all the time and they are not in the suburbs, so it adds up, day in and day out. The answer is not just Racial Sensitivity Training or more africanamerican police officers, although it is probably part of the answer. That is not the ultimate answer. I think the ultimate answer is in understanding the war on drugs has gone too far, that we have treated the war on drugs diction and the problems our kids have as an incarceration issue and not an addiction or health issue. I think we need less incarceration of people of all races. The injustices evident in our prisons largely fail away for we dismantled the overzealousness of the war on drugs. As i traveled the country, as i went to ferguson as i went to chicago, detroit and all of our big cities, i sensed an undercurrent of unease. Its not just the instances that have happened, its not the particular instances of a shooting, though those have not helped. It is day in, day out, kind of like what Martin Luther king talked about one america where you feel you can be treated in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and everything is fair. Other people feel like they still have no chance. In ferguson in many cities in missouri, 30 of the revenue coming in is from tickets and finds. Who disproportionally gets these . Poor people. 21,000 people live in ferguson and yet there were 32,000 rest werent as werent last year. Child support. Everyone be shot to pay Child Support, but if you have been imprisoned for three years and make eight dollars an hour should we put you back in prison because you cant keep up with your Child Support . It adds up to an impossibility for some people and people are giving up. In california, there are 2000 people who have committed no Violent Crime no serious crime, and they are serving 25 years to life. You may recall in california, they passed proposition 47. They took some minor drug felonies and laid the misdemeanors. You know what happened . Four months later, they are finding they are no longer mandated to release people. The federal government is saying violent terminals are being let out. In four months, they are finding violent criminals can serve their entire sentence because they are not crowding the prison with marijuana crimes. The incarceration hinges out of control and its time we get together, republicans, democrats and independents, and its time we fix it. [applause] to me, it is about the faces and stories Rolling Stone did a great expose about this. Timothy tyler was 23 years ago. Hes a dead head and he was naked in the desert. I dont think all deadheads do that. , but heres the thing somebody could have set him straight. He went to prison for life. Hes 46 years old now. He has been in jail for 23 years and might be in jail for another 40 years. He made a mistake. Couldnt we give him a Second Chance . This is one thing i want to complement the print , the president on. He has commuted some sentences for people who have been disparately affected, crack cocaine users in for 15 years with the corresponding white kid in college got six months or nothing. We need to change the laws. A while back, we changed it from a 101 disparity for cocaine. Lets make it one to one. Theres no reason we cant fix it. [applause] people are rotting in prison from these mandatory minimums. Judges, the majority appointed by republicans everybody is saying they dont want mandatory minimums. It takes justice out of the equation. Judges need to begin back the discretion. But i think justice will only occur when we repeal all mandatory minimums. [applause] i want to stipulate because the Washington Post and i dont always agree. They are not always my best friend, but i am here to pay a compliment to the Washington Post for doing a great job. It would be a great disservice to the country of we lose our newspapers that do investigative reporting. The reporting on civil Asset Forfeiture is changing minds. Its changing minds in congress and even the last couple of months, we are talking about it and i know senator leahy was there in the judiciary talking about civil Asset Forfeiture. The stories are what get me. One person has a nice home in philadelphia. His teenage son sells 40 worth of Illegal Drugs and what do they do must wreck they evict the family from the house barricade house and take the house without a conviction. Its insane. Too often, this is a grandma any innercity is the only stabilizing force in the familys grandson is selling marijuana and they take the house. We have to do something about this. To my mind, it is fully unamerican the government could ever take your property without a conviction and i think we have to change it. The sooner, the better. [applause] senator leahy mentioned the collection of phone records. Millions of people possible records are being collected. To my mind when the Fourth Amendment says you need to name an individual, i dont know anybody named mr. Verizon. [laughter] i think your records, when held by a thirdparty, when your records are held by a third party and you have a privacy agreement with them, you do not give up your private property interest and you maintain an interest in those records. [applause] one unapologetic senator said if you are not talking to terrorists, why are you worried . He goes on to say he would censor the mail if he could. Really . This senator goes on to say when you are an american citizen and they asked for a lawyer, tell them to shut up. Really . Can we stooped so low that that is our standard . Have we fallen so low that that is our standard . If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear . Its a long way from innocent until proven guilty. Our Founding Fathers would be mortified. I think justice will predominate when the accused is always afford a lawyer, always afforded due process, and always afford trial. [applause] the new yorker did the next was a that prevent that affected me profoundly. A 16yearold kid accused of crime and sent to jail for three years in rikers with no trial. Republicans, we are great with the second amendment, but some he has to stand up with the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth, which says you get a speedy trial. [applause] he was kept in solitary confinement. Cory booker and i have a bill that gets rid of solitary confinement for kids and will help us from this happening again. The way i see it, the bill of rights is for the least among us, for the least popular, for those who dont dress and act like everyone else. The bill of rights is not so necessary for the prom queen. The bill of rights is not so necessary for the high school quarterback, that we will give them that. It is for the least popular among us. The bill of rights is especially for the unpopular, for the persecuted, for the minority. To me, a minority is not just the color of your skin. It could be the shade of your ideology, it could be the shade of your religious faith. What should motivate us all to protect and defend the system that find justice and protects everyone, whether you are rich or poor, black or white, until then, i want to be one of those who remained ever vigilant and ever wary of those who would trade justice for a false sense of security. Thank you. [applause] thank you so much, senator paul. For our last award, i would like to introduce marty baron, the executive editor of the Washington Post. Although i guess hes not supposed to be in the paper, and the last couple of days, he has in and the paper for something very good, which is the pulitzer and for something very bad which is the fact that the post bureau chief in iran is still in prison and about to go on trial. The statements from marty described quite accurately how terrifying that situation is. Congratulations to the pulitzer and please come to the podium. Thank you. [applause] marty thank you. Senator paul, these few moments of friendship have been a wonderful thing. [laughter] [applause] earlier this year, many leading media professionals gathered to address what we saw as an emerging crisis in Free Expression. It wasnt just that the rights of the press were under a salt in countries around the world, including our own, Free Expression itself was under threat. We wanted the circle of advocates for Free Expression to widen. We needed more than media organizations to take up the cause, especially the broader business community. After all, Free Expression means more accountability, less corruption, the open exchange of ideas. It gives me enormous pleasure this evening to recognize a business that is that has consistently taken a stand in favor of Free Expression for many years, twitter. Twitters present and future depend on the flow of ideas information, and opinion. I am also pleased that this award goes to twitter because of its principled stand on an issue that was at the heart of coverage a year ago by the Washington PostNational Surveillance by the National Security agency, which others have spoken about tonight stop in service of that surveillance system, the government had compelled Large Technology providers, including microsoft google, aol, facebook and apple to turnover millions of peoples private data. Disclosures about the breathtaking scope of surveillance touched off a debate as you know but the proper balance between National Security and individual privacy. As the aclu and Human Rights Watch have noted surveillance carries profound implications for press freedom, the publics right to information and the right to counsel. In the subsequent furor over those disclosures, many Technology Companies sought to tell the public more. They wanted to reveal statistics on broader Law Enforcement requests than they were already publishing. The department of justice resisted. But it ultimately agreed to allow publication of broadband of certain types of National Security information requests even as it continued to insist on a number of restrictions. Twitter, however felt the compromise did not go far enough. It did not join in the settlement. It wanted to be more forthcoming. To describe government requests and more informative detail and to say openly whether it had received no requests of a certain type. The government did not consent and so twitter sued in federal court, arguing its First Amendment rights were being violated. Twitter, the company, said in filing, is a unique service built on trust and transparency. People, it said, expect to share information without undue fear of government surveillance. The government prohibition of twitter argued it represented at unconstitutional prior restraint of free speech and i am proud to say the Washington Post is among the media organizations that filed a friend of the court briefs to support twitter. This is a battle that has just begun. Twitter has indicated that it is in it for the long haul. The great thing is that it is fighting and fighting hard. It is now my honor to present the 2015 constitutional champion award to twitter incorporated. Accepting the award on twitters path is the Vice President of Global Public policy from twitter. [applause] colin thank you. It is with deep appreciation and gratitude that for the work the constitution project does that day in and day out, year after year in protecting Civil Liberties that twitter accepts this reward this award and im here to accept this on behalf of my colleagues at twitter. Its also a special honor for us to be recognized for these issues. Senator paul has been a vocal advocate of constitutionally protected freedoms and he just shared with all of us that he is that for the long run. He has been quite active on our platform and participated in a twitter q a at sxsw. Senator leahy has an unparalleled record of defending Civil Liberties while on the Senate Judiciary committee. Twitter proactively supported senator leahys legislation and we will be back along with our Sister Companies as part of the coalition and actively involved in that on capitol hill. We are proud to share the stage tonight with both of you and we will continue to work with you to defend and respect our users voices and rights. Marty touched on this in the introduction but i thought i would talk to you about why a company like twitter would care about these issues. A little bit of background i go around and i know awareness of twitter is very high a natural use of twitter can lag a little bit. By way of background, twitter buzz goal is to bring people what is most meaningful to them. We do that by allowing people to share brief 140 character messages with the world that we call tweets. Over time, these tweets have evolved so they can include brief six second loop videos. Photos screenshots, and most recently links to a live broadcast from a new service we call periscope. This is is a live of a conversational way to share thoughts and perspectives instantaneously. One of the fact i learned on my first day at twitter was from the very first tweet that was sent by one of our cofounders jack dorsey, it took three years, two months and one day to go from that first tweet to the one billionth tweet. Twitter now serves a billion tweets every two days. The volume of content shared in the platform in multiple languages with diverse perspectives is really rich. It would take 361 tweets to tweak out the u. S. Constitution. If you want to do that when you get home later, fun for the feebleminded. You can try that. Twitter connects people and ideas and collect and kenexa officials to their voters and kenexa causes to their constituents, celebrities to their aunts, families to faraway loved ones and just about every combination as diverse as the Global Community itself. Twitter users have the power to make their own experience, but they are also exposed to the ideas and perspectives of others. One of the wonderful things about twitter is that it is often a discovery engine for our users and you will find content you might not always expect to find. A persons timeline can be filled with inspiring content and searing commentary for top it can be filled with breaking news and twitter, as you know, is often an important window into breaking news around the world. For journalists and activists and individual citizens, its a medium that often bears witness to history and bears witness to atrocity. That is something thats an important feature of the platform. Like the rest of the internet, twitter has seen posted content of painful content, natural disasters, terrorism, government repression around the world. But it is also a place where people can find greater connectedness and a place where people can find information conversations and where empathy can be shared. The key thing in thinking about that is to recognize our role as the provider of this open platform for Free Expression is to recognize that speech is not our own. That speech is the speech of our users. The public sharing of thoughts and opinions of those who come to twitter seeking to share content with the world is precisely because its not our own content that we feel we have a duty to respect those voices. To allow our platform to remain a place where users can discuss what they want, whether we agree or not, whether we agree with what they are saying, the platform is open. The platform in any debate is neutral. That openness, that instantaneous connection to idea perspectives is something were working on to protect and enhance as a User Experience on the platform. Why would we care about government surveillance . Its because these issues now go to the heart of what twitter is all about. It are flex and interest in our core values. But it is also something that reflects the fact that twitter itself is compelling because our users voices make it compelling. For that reason it animates our efforts around freedom of expression. We also believe the work we do to defend the users voices an important part of what brings people to twitter instead of going to some other platforms. As a result, its not only good ethical practice but we believe it is Good Business practice. Our efforts to reform government surveillance stem from this core understanding of our business and platform. One of the great things i love about the company and drew me to the company to work for was it has always been willing to put its money, its time, it simply efforts and basically put its mouth, put it tweets and people and resources where these issues come to the four. Some of this occurs on work you will never hear about. Some of this work will be on things like pushing back on a warrant when noticing a user about a subpoena request and providing links to resources so they can see pro bono counsel. Some of this work is public but does not often get a lot of coverage things like resisting coverage to compel the production of user data from plaintiffs trying to identify a user using a pseudonym who may have been sharing personal commentary or opinion about a ceo or a politician somewhere in the world. Those are things that are important to twitter and those are things we work on. Some of the things you have heard have been referenced here the lawsuit, twitter versus holder. As the deputy general counsel explained when we filed the suit, it is our belief that we are entitled under the First Amendment to respond to our users concerns and to the statements of the u. S. Government officials by providing information about the scope of u. S. Government surveillance, including what types of Legal Process have not been received. We should be prepared to do this in a meaningful way rather than broad, inexact ranges. So our lawsuit continues. We are committed to seeing it through. The next step is a hearing on may 5 on the governments motion to dismiss parts of the case. We have appreciated the outpouring of support we have received here through efforts from the Washington Post and other media organizations as well as the Electronic Frontier foundation and many others who agree this issue concerns core protections with implications for our democracy. We appreciate the opportunity to take those issues, challenges, and concern to the Northern District of california. Even as we continued our core proceeding, we will continue to be engaged here in washington. Theres a lot going on here this spring and we will continue to build our business in a way that makes us proud and reaffirm our commitment to respecting the users voice. I mentioned at the beginning i was accepting this award on behalf of my colleagues. I wanted to buy name mentioned several of them. Our general counsel on the trust and safety team in california, as well as the team, the twitter team here in washington who are at the event. I wanted to publicly acknowledge them and recognize this is a companywide commitment to these issues. Thank you for the introduction. Thank you very much. [applause] so come on we are almost done. Im the chair of the board for tcp and my job is to thank all of you for coming tonight to support their work and support our three honorees this evening. Once again, our friends have arranged for a fabulous and you and great weather. The thing i like most about this event is as jenny and her team at the constitution project do they bring together people from across the spectrum and find agreement. The remarks you heard tonight from our three honorees are a perfect illustration of the type of things the tcp does and what they stand for. It has been a wonderful evening. I want to make sure to thank all of our sponsors who helped make this event happened. Everyone who turned out for this lovely evening and, as you come away from this, dont forget to stop and have some gelato. As you come away and ink about what you heard from senator leahy and center paul and colin on behalf of twitter, remember that these issues affect all americans. Senator paul said a lot of what you think about in the bill of rights and criminal Justice Reform is for the downtrodden, but the work in terms of protecting privacy and those subpoenas to mr. Verizon and to twitter certainly affect all of us. I dont use twitter, but my kids do so it affects our kids. We should all care about this and it is fantastic there is an organization in washington like the constitution project that brings people together to address these issues. The last thing i have to do before i thank you and bid you good evening is to remind you that tcp cannot do this without your help. Folks who sponsored and bought tickets tonight, people who respond to the campaign throughout the year, they help make this happen. But there is an envelope you got on your way and. You can put something in on the way out or stick it in the mail. Please do what you can to help tcp and for all the lawyers in the room will i know there are plenty of you here. We are always looking for volunteers, so please reach out. Thank you all and have a great evening. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] coming up today on newsmakers ohio senator Sherrod Brown about his opposition to the trade Promotion Authority bill passed by the Senate Finance committee on wednesday. He will talk about trade the differences among Democratic Senators and republicans. The Financial Regulation of wall street Financial Institutions and the future of the dodd frank law. Newsmakers today at 6 p. M. Eastern on cspan. In 2003, Judith Miller wrote several stories on the lead up to the invasion of iraq and weapons of mass destruction. In an effort to reveal her source, she was found in contempt of court and imprisoned in a federal jail for 85 days. Tonight, she talks about her time in jail and her new book, the story, a reporters journey. Judith i was in jail because i refuse to reveal the identity of a source who i thought to not want his identity revealed. In our business, protecting persons is the lifeblood of independent journalism. I felt that unless the people i routinely spoke to who had access to classified information , unless they could trust me to protect them, my sources would dry up and eventually, i would just be writing with the government wanted you to write. I felt this was a question of principle, that i did not have much choice. Tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern