Constitution Project (TCP)

As a project of POGO, the Constitution Project is a research collective whose researchers aim to evaluate and draw attention to what the group determines are constitutional rights violations, especially in situations concerning the government exercising power in the name of national security and domestic policing. ^{1  2}

Its founder and president was Virginia Sloan. ³

Activities

Surveillance and Civil Liberties Testimony

In 2019, the Constitution Project at the POGO created a taskforce to examine the effects of face recognition surveillance. ⁴ The Constitution Project’s taskforce submitted written testimony to state lawmakers on civil liberties issues, including a statement in support of Massachusetts legislation to regulate government use of facial surveillance and other biometric surveillance technologies. ⁵

Supreme Court Ethics

The Constitution Project pushed for new ethics rules on the U.S. Supreme Court, in response to the 2023 allegations that Justice Clarence Thomas had taken undisclosed travel and gifts. The group endorsed the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act, known as the SCERT Act. The SCERT Act was introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), and Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) and would end the practice of justices judging their own conflicts of interest, require more disclosure before the Court when a justice has a connection to a party, and require judges to publicly explain their recusal decisions. ^{6  7}

Every Senate co-sponsor of the bill was a Democrat or independent caucusing with the Democrats, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), Sen. Richard “Dick” Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI). ⁸ This built on the Constitution Project’s earlier taskforce that challenged the legitimacy of the federal judiciary, including a July 2021 report, “Above the Fray: Changing the Stakes of the Supreme Court Selection and Enhancing Legitimacy.” ^{9  10}

Task Force on Detainee Treatment

After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Constitution Project investigated how the United States treated suspected terrorists in custody. When President Barack Obama refused to investigate the matter after his election, the Constitution Project convened a panel to examine federal policies on the capture, detention, and treatment of suspected terrorists across the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. The group did not have the ability to subpoena information and could not access classified material, but it created a 584-page report that concluded that “the United States engaged in the practice of torture.” ^{11  12}

Death Penalty Initiative

In May 2000, the Constitution Project created a death penalty initiative to address the risk that Americans were being wrongfully convicted of capital crimes and sentenced to death. ¹³ The group included First Lady Rosalynn Carter, former FBI Director Bill Sessions, prosecutor Beth Wilkinson, former Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge Charles Baird, and former New York Governor Mario Cuomo (D). ¹⁴

In a report published by the organization, including a group of elected leaders and anti-death penalty activists, called “Irreversible Error,” it recommended stronger clemency processes, broader court access for inmates facing execution, shifting to a single-drug execution protocol, and forcing states to disclose which drugs are used to give the public a voice on how those decisions are made. ¹⁵

Another report, “Mandatory Justice: The Death Penalty Revisited,” provided 32 recommendations, including that felony murder should be excluded as the basis for death penalty eligibility, there should be the availability of a life sentence without parole, and that cases should be reviewed after conviction if there is a claim of innocence. ¹⁴

People

In 1997, Virginia “Ginny” Sloan founded the Constitution Project and led the organization for 20 years until it was acquired by the Project on Government Oversight. As of May 2026, Sloan was a member of the board of POGO and was on the board of trustees of the Council on Criminal Justice. ^{16  17  18} She was on the boards of the Southern Center for Human Rights, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, and Measures for Justice, and was a member of the American Law Institute. Previously, Sloan was the executive director of the Task Force on Gender, Race, and Ethnic Bias of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and a counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.  ¹⁹