Reinforcing The Value Of Constitutional Law

A large world map, drawn from the old Soviet Union’s perspective, dominates a wall in Jeffrey Kahn’s office. The map is more than a Cold War artifact for this Dedman School of Law assistant professor. It is a reminder that even the most powerful institutions are not invulnerable.

Jeffrey Kahn, Dedman School of Law

In his second year at SMU, Kahn is carving out an academic niche at the intersection of U.S. constitutional law, human rights, counterterrorism and comparative law.

But when he began his undergraduate studies at Yale in 1990, the Berlin Wall had just fallen and there was a new, reform-talking leader in the Kremlin. Kahn pursued four years of Russian language studies, despite warnings from Yale faculty that the difficult language was not the best use of time for a young man determined to practice law in the United States.

“But I wanted to see how the Soviet story ended,” Kahn recalls. If that seemingly indestructible powerhouse could be disassembled, he wondered what parallels could be drawn to the relative strength and stability of the foundations of U.S. government.

“What do I have to do as a citizen to keep these institutions strong?” he asked himself.

The question continues to shape his teaching and engage his students, particularly in studying U.S. constitutional law. His syllabus for the course directs students toward an answer before they ever enter his classroom:

“At our first class, I will issue you a pocket-sized U.S. Constitution,” reads the syllabus. “You should strive to develop the same level of affection and familiarity toward it that a United States Marine accords to his or her rifle.”

For 2007-08, Kahn was named a Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Professional Responsibility teaching fellow. He already was teaching a seminar on the role of lawyers in counterterrorism, studying the cases of illegal immigrants, citizens claiming to be victims of “rendition” and torture overseas, charitable organizations subject to asset forfeiture after being labeled terrorist fronts and travelers caught by government-issued “no fly” lists. “I want to include the stories told by lawyers who anguish over their ethical responsibilities to country and client,” Kahn wrote in applying for the fellowship. The Maguire fellowship enabled him to bring in guest lecturers to tell those stories firsthand.

One of those classroom lessons played out in a Dallas courtroom: Last year Kahn became a “go-to” source for local and national news media in the federal case against Richardson’s Holy Land Foundation as an alleged front for the terrorist group Hamas. The case ended in mistrial.

He now is researching how the war on terror is affecting a citizen’s right to travel. “The right to travel is a core democratic principle dating back to Athens,” he says.

Kahn first traveled to Russia in summer 1993, just before the October constitutional crisis that prompted President Boris Yeltsin to illegally dissolve the country’s legislature. Kahn returned numerous times while earning a Master’s and Doctorate from Oxford University. His dissertation, “Federalism, Democratization and the Rule of Law in Russia,” was published by Oxford University Press. Even while enrolled at the University of Michigan Law School, Kahn delivered lectures on European human rights law to Russian attorneys at summer programs in Moscow sponsored by the Council of Europe.

After graduating from law school in 2002, he clerked for U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Griesa and took a job (on Griesa’s advice) as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice from 2003-06. Kahn traveled the country on a variety of cases, and remembers exactly when the real significance of the job hit him.

“The first time I stood in front of a federal judge to identify myself for the record and say, ‘My name is Jeffrey Kahn and I represent the United States of America in this matter’ – well, the responsibility behind those words really took my breath away.”

He long since had proven wrong the naysayers who questioned his determination to learn Russian: Among his last assignments, the Justice Department detailed Kahn to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to conduct research on criminal procedure in that evolving democracy.

“I am far from fluent and my American accent, I am told, is very strong,” Kahn says. “But I have found that perseverance and a willing smile accomplishes a lot.”

Acting on a long-developing desire to teach, Kahn calls his faculty appointment a cherished opportunity to think hard on tough issues and talk with intelligent students. “It’s wonderful to be invited into this faculty, where I can take an idea and run with it,” he says.

– Kim Cobb