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Center for Policy Studies
Public Affairs Discussion Group

The Wizard Behind the Curtain: ALEC and State Legislatures in 2014

Amy Hanauer - Executive Director, Policy Matters Ohio

Friday February 14, 2014
12:30-1:30 p.m.

***Alternate Location: 1st Floor Lounge, Guilford House***
Case Western Reserve University

Dear Colleagues:

One of the most powerful lobbying organizations in the country is barely visible to the American public. ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council – focuses on state legislation. Organized as a tax-exempt membership organization for a couple of thousand state legislators, it receives nearly all of its budget (over $9 million in 2011) from corporations and conservative donors. Task forces of both legislators and private sector members draft model legislation, which its members then propose in their states.

ALEC's early focus on economic issues expanded to include models for "Stand Your Ground Laws" and Voter ID laws. It has been weakened by corporate and some legislators' defections in the wake of the Treyvon Martin case, in which George Zimmerman was initially not charged with any crime based on "Stand Your Ground." But ALEC still has an extensive agenda. Amy Hanauer – not an ALEC supporter – joins us to discuss ALEC's current agenda and role in Ohio and other states' politics.

All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies


About Our Guest

Amy Hanauer is the founding executive director of Policy Matters Ohio. She has a master’s of Public Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.A. from Cornell University. Before starting Policy Matters in 2000, Amy did research and policy work in Wisconsin, Colorado and Washington D.C. In addition to running Policy Matters, Amy does research on work, wages, tax policy, energy policy and other issues. Amy Hanauer is on the board of directors and the executive committee of the national think tank Dēmos, the steering committee for Emerald Cities Cleveland, and the advisory committee to the national Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN). Read her piece on Ohio in a 2011 edition of The Nation magazine and this profile about her that ran in the Plain Dealer, or her piece for Belt Magazine on starting a movement.

Where We Meet and Parking Possibilities

Guilford House is at 11112 Bellflower Road, a pretty yellow building with a porch in the Mather Quad. The Lounge is on the first floor.  The closest parking is the Severance garage or the lot at the Church of the Covenant.

Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

February 21: The Profession of Accounting: Where It Came From, Where It Has Been, and Where It's Going. With Gary Previts, Distinguished University Professor and E. Mandel de Windt Professor of Leadership and Enterprise Development.

February 28: TBA


March 7: Shared Success: Law Enforcement, Faith-Based Organizations, and the Fugitive Safe Surrender Program.
With Daniel Flannery Ph.D., Semi J. and Ruth W. Begun Professor and Director, Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education.

March 14: Spring Break

March 21: What the Jewish Experience Tells Us About Religion in America Today.
With Peter J. Haas, Abba Hillel Silver Professor of Jewish Studies and Chair, Department of Religious Studies.

March 28: Muslims in the United States.
With Justine Howe, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies.

April 4: The “Problem” of Teen Mothers.
With Mary Erdmans, Associate Professor of Sociology.

April 11: Is the Federal Government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States Anti-Asian? With Timothy Webster, Assistant Professor of Law and Director, East Asian Legal Studies. ***Alternate Site: Mather House Room 100.***

April 18: Is Cleveland Dying?
With John A. Begala, Executive Director, Center for Community Solutions.

April 25: Pope Francis: So Far. With Paul V. Murphy, Professor of History and Director, Institute of Catholic Studies, John Carroll University
February 10, 2014

If you would like to reply, submit items for inclusion, or not receive this weekly e-mail please send a notice to: padg@case.edu

Upcoming Events

Iran’s 1979 Revolution: Theory and Beyond

Arang Keshavarzian, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University, Wednesday, February 19, 2014, 12:00pm - 1:45pm, Thwing Center, 1914 Lounge, Case Western Reserve University, 11111 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106. Sponsored by the Northeast Ohio Consortium on Middle East Studies (NOCMES)

Professor Keshavarzian is also the Director of Undergraduate Studies at New York University. He is currently on the editorial board of the International Journal of Middle East Studies and is author of Bazaar and State in Iran: Politics of the Tehran Marketplace (Cambridge University Press, 2007).


An Introduction to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Court

James G. Carr, a senior federal judge for the Northern District of Ohio, and former Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge. Monday, February 24, 2014, 4:30-5:30 p.m., Moot Courtroom (A59), 11075 East Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44106-7148. Free and open to the public. Sponsored by the CWRU School of Law.

Judge Carr will discuss national security surveillance and his proposal to reform the FISA Court by authorizing judges to appoint lawyers to represent the public interest when new legal issues arise in connection with government surveillance applications.

From December 22, 2004, until May 31, 2010, when he assumed Senior status, Judge James Carr was Chief Judge of United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. In addition, from May, 2002, until May, 2008, Judge Carr served, by appointment of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, as a member of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in Washington, D.C.


Can Globalization Be Governed?

A Global Currents Lecture with Tony Porter, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, McMaster University, Thursday, February 27, 4:30 - 6:00 p.m., Spartan Room, Thwing Center, 11111 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106.

To advocates like Tom Friedman, "Globalization" is a wonderful and natural process to which people need to adjust. To some critics, it is a dangerous pattern that needs to be resisted through public authority. And to others it is a process that is not natural at all, but encouraged by public policy that serves some interests at the expense of others.

If globalization were governed, how would that work, and in whose interest? Are there, in fact, efforts to govern aspects of globalization, such as international finance or global environmental threats, now? If so, how do or can they work, in the absence of world government? Tony Porter is one of the world's leading scholars of business regulation and global governance, especially financial regulation and processes of hybrid public/private rule-making that cross international borders. Some of his recent research has studied creation of transnational rules produced by business associations and international standard-setting bodies; the Financial Stability Board created to coordinate central banks and national financial regulators in the wake of the financial crisis; and influences on international elites from processes such as OECD peer reviews of “best practices” in national governance. Professor Porter’s newest edited volume, Transnational Financial Regulation after the Crisis (Routledge), includes a chapter by our own Professor Lavelle and will be released shortly before his visit to CWRU.

This program is made possible by the generosity of Ms. Eloise Briskin.


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About the Friday Lunch Newsletter

If you would like to reply, submit items for inclusion, or not receive this weekly e-mail please send a notice to: padg@case.edu.

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