Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney ’75 recently announced that his Justice Advisory Committee will be co-chaired by HLS Professor Mary Ann Glendon along with Robert Bork and Richard Wiley. Leading a committee of 63 other lawyers, including HLS Professor Allen Ferrell ’95, they will advise Romney’s campaign on constitutional and judicial matters, homeland security, law enforcement, and regulatory issues.
The three co-chairs released a statement saying, “Mitt Romney deeply understands that the rule of law and the integrity of our courts are essential components of our nation’s strength and must be preserved. He will nominate judges who faithfully adhere to the Constitution’s text, structure, and history and he will carry out the duties of President as a zealous defender of the Constitution. We fully support Mitt Romney’s campaign and look forward to working with other members of the committee as we advise him on today’s pressing legal issues.”
Glendon served as President George W. Bush’s ambassador to the Vatican in 2007 and before that on the President’s Counsel on Bioethics. She became the first female president of the Roman Catholic Church’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences when Pope John Paul II appointed her in 2004.
Her most recent book, which came out in July, “The Forum and the Tower: How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt” (Oxford University Press) looks at the historical relationship between academics and political actors. (Read an interview with Glendon about the book.). Some of her other works include “Traditions in Turmoil: Essays on Law, Culture and Human Rights” (Sapientia Press, 2006) and “A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (Random House, 2001). Glendon, who specializes in comparative constitutional law, international human rights, and bioethics, began teaching at Harvard in 1974 and became the Learned Hand Professor of Law in 1993.
Others with HLS affiliations serving on Romney’s Justice Advisory Committee include H. Christopher Bartolomucci ’92, Bradford Berenson ’91, Brant Bishop ‘96, Jeffery Clark ’75, Michael R. Dimino ’01, Sergio J. Galvis ’93, Christopher Landau ’89, Wendy Long ’97, Raymond B. Ludwiszewski ’84, Gary McDowell ’94, Mark Nielsen ’89, Elizabeth Papez ’99, Matthew Papez ’99, Nels Peterson ’04, Thomas Phillips ’74, Stephen Presser ’71, Jay Stephens ’72, and John Sullivan ’64.