September 2007 Issue

Cover Story

Law In the Age of Terror

Six years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, much of the legal system’s role in the war on terror remains unresolved.

Should the courts take a backseat to the executive branch, as they have historically done during wartime? Or, in this new kind of conflict—with no hope of a discernible, state-sanctioned end—should the courts hold the executive branch as accountable as they would in peacetime?

Neither view seems likely to win out. Rather, we seem to be stumbling toward a third way: building, bit by bit, a new paradigm of the law of terror—defining the limits of executive power, civil liberties, defendants’ rights and the independence of the judiciary with a system that borrows from the law of both wartime and peacetime.

Web Extras

On ABAJournal.com

Feature Section

Rising From The Rubble

In the aftermath of 9/11, lawyers at New York’s Harris Beach don’t practice law the same way they once did.

Every Terrorism Case Since 9/11

From 15,000 FBI interviews of “persons of interest” to 2,972 convictions, how the government’s terrorism-related cases have played out.

Moussaoui v. The United States

In the case of the “20th hijacker,” due process thwarted a courtroom jihad.

But Is It War?

Conservatives debate the limits of executive power post-9/11.

31 Wins, 6 Losses & 1 Tie

Our scorecard of the Justice Department’s legal war against al-Qaida.

The Architects

The Bush administration lawyers who created the blueprint for the legal war on terror.

The 50-Lawyer Poll

Defense attorneys who have tried terror cases score the legal system’s response to 9/11.

The Go-To Lawyer of ‘Northern Virginiastan’

Muslim-American attorney Ashraf Nubani dreams of building an ordinary law practice. Meanwhile, there are terrorists—alleged and otherwise—to defend.

“If I Represented Bin Laden ...”

How some of America’s best-known defense lawyers and legal commentators would represent public enemy No. 1.

Setting Precedent In Two Wars

Justice John Paul Stevens has turned dissents he helped draft as a U.S. Supreme Court clerk 60 years ago into majority opinions during the war on terror.

A Uniform Complaint

Former military lawyers recount their fight to define justice for enemy combatants.

ABA Connection

Accounting for Lives

The 9/11 victim compensation fund worked. But what about the next time?

Your ABA

Engaged from the Start

President's Message

Reaching Out to Curb Terrorism

Obiter Dicta

Letters to the Editor

Helpful Hacks

Advertising

Advertisers in this Issue