Holder to Keynote Constitution Project’s Annual Dinner

Save the date: Attorney General Eric Holder will interrupt his bureaucratic battle to keep Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the other 9/11 conspirators tried in federal court on the evening of April 15 to deliver an address to the civil liberties group the Constitution Project at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. That’s the day after Holder’s long-awaited (and rescheduled) testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Accordingly, Holder’s address will be a weather vane for the internal struggle over the trial, which is shaping up to be the defining feature of his tenure atop the Justice Department. It’ll be hard to avoid the subject of the KSM trial in front of an audience of hardcore civil libertarians. If he does, he runs the risk of dispiriting the crowd. (Which would be too bad for the Constitution Project, since the dinner is a fundraiser.) Whatever Holder says — or doesn’t say — will be closely parsed, scrutinized and examined for clues to the future of KSM and the legal implications of the Obama administration’s ultimate decision as to his fate. I’m not above saying I’ll be an active participant in the analysis (or over-analysis).