Two attorneys who have represented Guantanamo detainees will speak today at the Wayne Morse Center about civil rights and war time detentions.
The event is the second annual symposium organized by Morse Fellows and is part of this year’s theme at the center of democracy and citizenship in the 21st century.
The event will feature a panel discussion and a reception with the speakers and representatives from local advocacy groups.

Attorneys Steve Wax and Tom Johnson will be on the panel with University professor Ibrahim Gassama, a human rights activist who teaches international law. Morse Center resident scholar Garrett Epps will be the moderator.
Wax is the head of Oregon’s Public Defender Office. He has represented seven detainees, five of whom are still in the secretive prison on the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He also successfully represented Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield in his challenge to the Patriot Act.
Johnson is a private attorney who did pro-bono work in representing Ihlkham Battayav, a Kazakhstani national who was detained in Guantanamo for five years.
Wax said he plans to speak about the importance of habeus corpus as a check on executive power and “whether the executive is allowed to seize and detain people unilaterally without the need for judicial review.” While there are terrorists being held in Guantanamo, there are innocent men there as well, he said.
Wayne Morse Center Director Margaret Hallock said the purpose of the discussion is to raise questions about human rights during a time of war, from detentions to the Patriot Act.
“Many people believe that even if they’re not unconstitutional, it’s unwise,” she said, “the way that civil liberties have been restricted during this war for citizens and non-citizens.”
Sarah Mann, a second year law student and co-organizer of the event, said it will aim to explain to students why Guantanamo is important and ascertain if enough is being done about it in the legal community.
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