When justice and politics bed down together, justice frequently suffers. To end that unhappy pairing, Congress created the Office of the Special Prosecutor in 1978. Its mandate was to insure the rule of law, to check abuses of power in the executive branch, and to restore public confidence in government after the Watergate scandal. 
Has it worked? Many would say not, particularly after special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh's handling of the Iran Contra affair. But Katy Harriger would answer with a qualified yes. The Office of the Special Prospecutor has been misunderstood, neglected, and overrated, Harriger argues, yet it plays a vital role in the American political and legal systems in the post-Watergate era. 
In Independent Justice, Harriger focuses on the symbolic, constitutional, and political dimensions of her subject to provide the first comprehensive, in-depth review of the Office of the Special Prosecutor and how it has operated in practice. She examines the use of independent counsel historically and in recent political scandals, including the Oliver North, Michael Deaver, Hamilton Jordan, Theodore Olson, and Edwin Meese cases. Her conclusions are based on interviews with over fifty people involved in the independent counsel process, including special prosecutors and their staffs, congressional staff, representatives of interest groups, defense attorneys, judges, and officials of the Department of Justice. 
Is the Office of the Special Prosecutor worth preserving? Congress will decide in 1992 when it debates the reauthorization of the Ethics in Government Act. But Harriger argues for changes. Out of her comprehensive critique of the current system she draws both recommendations for improvement and an outline of the issues that will and should be debated by Congress and the public.

Independent Justice: The Federal Special Prosecutor in American Politics

Harriger, Katy J.

Reference

Univ Pr of Kansas

The federal special prosecutor: unprincipled abuser of power or staunch defender of the law? As Katy Harriger shows, the special prosecutor was a hotly debated and controversial subject throughout much of its existence. This was especially true, she argues, during the lengthy, expensive, and highly-politicized investigations of Lawrence Walsh and Kenneth Starr into allegations concerning Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Harriger offers the most complete assessment available of the use of special prosecutors in the post-Watergate era. She analyzes the independent counsel's role within the framework of the separation of powers, explaining how each has interacted with other key players in the political and legal system and showing how those relationships have affected the prosecutor's ability to conduct investigations. Harriger's previous edition focused on the legacy of Watergate but was published before Walsh's Iran-Contra investigations were concluded. Her new study adds substantially more information on Iran-Contra, provides a clearheaded appraisal of Starr's sensationalized Whitewater-Lewinsky investigations, examines a number of senior-level cabinet probes, and critiques and clarifies the role of Attorney General Janet Reno in these latter matters. A completely new chapter compares Iran-Contra and Whitewater-Lewinsky to explore the limits of the law in the special prosecutor's efforts. In this new edition, Harriger includes 20 new interviews with Washington insiders-including one with Kenneth Starr-and covers the debates that led to both the reauthorization of the independent counsel statute in 1994 and its demise in 1999. She then examines the pros and cons of the office and offers constructive suggestions for improvement should it be revived. For students, scholars, and concerned citizens, her book takes us well beyond frenzied media hype and partisan politics to provide a timely reminder about the crucial role of separation of powers in our system of governance.

The Special Prosecutor in American Politics: Second Edition, Revised

Legal History

University Press of Kansas

In this book, authors Katy J. Harriger and Jill J. McMillan follow the “Democracy Fellows,” a group of 30 college students, during their 4 years at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to discover whether their experiences in learning and practicing deliberation might counteract the alienation from public life that has overtaken so many young Americans today. Their research design included classroom learning and practical experiences in organizing and conducting deliberative forums both on campus and in the Winston-Salem community. Observations gleaned from interviews, focus groups, and surveys of a comparison group and the larger student population indicate that, upon graduation, the Democracy Fellows had the skills and the interests needed to become more involved and responsible citizens than their fellow students. Harriger, professor of political science, and McMillan, professor emerita of communication, offer some prescriptions for how deliberative practices might be adopted at other institutions of higher education as at least one important antidote to political disaffection among young people. The book includes a foreword by David Mathews, president of the Kettering Foundation.

Speaking of Politics: Preparing College Students for Democratic Citizenship through Deliberative Dialogue

Education & Teaching

McMillan, Jill J

Schools & Teaching

Kettering Foundation Press

This paperback volume (subtitled Constitutional Rights: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties) includes chapters 10 through 19 of American Constitutional Law, Eleventh Edition (hardback). This book, in addition to analyzing and including excerpts of court decisions, highlights the efforts of legislatures, executives, the states, and the general public to participate in an ongoing political dialogue about the meaning of the Constitution. It therefore rejects the idea that elected leaders and the public must passively receive and obey a series of unilateral and final judicial commands. The book covers all new developments in case law, congressional statutes, presidential policies, and initiatives undertaken by states under their own constitutions. Included are readings not only from cases but congressional floor debates, committee reports, committee hearings, presidential vetoes and statements, opinions of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department, state activity, Federalist papers, and professional journals. After introductory chapters on constitutional politics, the doctrine of judicial review, threshold requirements, judicial organization, and the process and strategy of decision making, the book focuses on these substantive areas: separation of powers (domestic and foreign affairs), federal-state relations, economic liberties, free speech and free press, religious freedom, due process, search and seizure, race, equal protection, privacy, and political participation. The book concludes with a chapter on efforts to curb the Supreme Court. Professors may choose between the one-volume casebound book or two paperbacks: Volume 1 on ''Constitutional Structures: Separated Powers and Federalism,'' and Volume 2 on ''Constitutional Rights: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.''

American Constitutional Law: Constitutional Rights: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Fisher, Louis

Constitutional Law

Carolina Academic Pr

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