This panel explored the question of whether rights are violated by the shift of inherently governmental functions to the private sector. Our prison systems are contracted out; some of our education schemes include vouchers and for-profit charter schools; our regulators are hiring private consultants to help enforce compliance and catch fraud; our federal Medicare systems rely on the insurance industry to determine medical necessity; and our courts are now telling litigants that judicial process is being privatized through arbitration. Are there constitutional or legal lines that are being crossed? How should progressives respond?
Speakers:
Kimberly Brown, Associate Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law
Reuben A. Guttman, Director, Grant & Eisenhofer P.A.; Adjunct Professor and Senior Fellow, Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution, Emory University School of Law
Jon D. Michaels, Anne Urowsky Visiting Professor of Law, Yale Law School; Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Miriam Seifter, Visiting Researcher and Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Paul R. Verkuil, Chairman, Administrative Conference of the United States