Among the participants was Frank Dunham, the federal prosecutor from Virginia who represents terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui and Yaser Esam Hamdi, a U.S. citizen captured in Afghanistan who remains in a military jail. Dunham cautioned that depriving people such as Hamdi, who is also believed to hold Saudi citizenship, of civil liberties only fuels Islamic extremism.

On the other hand, Temple Law School Professor Jan Ting defended U.S. efforts to not only detain terrorism suspects but to track the whereabouts of visitors from Muslim nations. He said it is too easy under U.S. immigration laws for terrorists to visit America, so surveillance is necessary.

Representing Penn Law at the conference were professors David Rudovsky, Seth Kreimer, and Kim Lane Scheppele. Rudovsky spoke about civil liberties in light of security threats; Kreimer discussed first amendment rights; and Scheppele addressed presidential and judicial power through the lens of international law.