Front & Center with John Callaway: USA Patriot Act: Security or Supression

Following the signing of the Patriot Act in October 2001 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, a national debate has raged on whether the act provides necessary tools to fight terrorism or deprives Americans of basic civil rights. John Callaway and his guests explored the Patriot Act and its impact on American security and liberty.

Patrick Fitzgerald served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois beginning in October 2001, following 13 years as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. The son of Irish immigrants, Fitzgerald worked his way through Amherst College, where he made Phi Beta Kappa. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he worked three years as a civil litigator in New York before joining the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York in 1988. Fitzgerald helped convict four members of the Gambino crime family on racketeering and murder charges. He helped prosecute Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine co-defendants for a terrorist campaign that included the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and plots to bomb the United Nations, the FBI Building in New York and the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels. In December 1995, Fitzgerald was named Co-Chief of the Organized Crime and Terrorism and was responsible for supervising the investigation and development of the case against Osama Bin-Ladin.

Colleen K. Connell was named President of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois in January 2001. The first woman to head the organization, Connell previously served as its Associate Legal Director. She directed litigation efforts involving constitutional rights of privacy and protecting the rights of Illinois citizens to make decisions concerning reproductive matters and childbearing. She has argued before the Supreme Court of the United States on matters involving the rights of women to control their own reproductive health. In 1999, she presented an argument to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals against the partial birth abortion law that was adopted in Illinois and other states. Connell joined the staff of the ACLU of Illinois in 1984. A native of North Dakota, she attended North Dakota State University and graduated from the Iowa Law School.

Deborah Caldwell-Stone is the Deputy Director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, where she works on projects addressing censorship and privacy in the library. Before joining the ALA, she was an appellate litigator practicing before the state and federal courts in Chicago, Illinois. She was previously an attorney with the appellate department of Cassiday, Schade & Gloor and the Ameritech legal department in Chicago. She is an honors graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology and received her undergraduate degree in mass media communications at Cleveland State University.

Joseph A. Morris is a partner in the law firm of Morris & De La Rosa, with offices in Chicago and London. Morris was the chief draftsman of the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act of 1992. He served under President Reagan as the Director, with the rank of Assistant Attorney General of the United States, of the Office of Liaison Services, the Justice Department bureau responsible for international and intergovernmental justice affairs. He has also served as the Chief of Staff and General Counsel of the United States Information Agency, and as a U.S. Delegate to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. He currently serves as president of the Lincoln Legal Foundation, a Chicago-based public interest law center that advocates the rights of property-owners and crime victims. He is the Chairman of the United Republican Fund of Illinois and is a Director of the American Conservative Union. He founded and chairs the annual Chicago Conservative Conference. Morris is an alumnus of the College and the Law School of The University of Chicago.

John Callaway
After a broadcast journalism career of 48 years, John Callaway is now engaged in writing, freelance broadcasting and speaking. The long-time host of Chicago Tonight on Chicago public television station WTTW Channel 11, Mr. Callaway is now host and senior editor for Chicago Stories a documentary and interview weekly program on WTTW. He has been honored with more than one hundred awards, including the coveted Peabody Award and fifteen Emmys. A drop-out from Ohio Wesleyan University who hitchhiked to Chicago with 71 cents in his pocket in 1956, he is the recipient of nine honorary doctorate degrees, including those from Northwestern University and the John Marshall College of Law. Mr. Callaway was also the founding Director of the William Benton Fellowships in Broadcast Journalism Program at the University of Chicago. He is the author of the bestselling collection of essays, The Thing of It Is and has written and performed two one-man shows, John Callaway Tonight and John Callaway's Life is ... Maintenance at the Pegasus Theater in Chicago.