The Byrd Center presents: 

Constitution Day at the Byrd Center: 
Watchdogs: Inspectors General and the Battle for Honest and Accountable Government

Wednesday, September 18 at 7:00pm
Byrd Center Auditorium
Free and open to the public

The Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education is pleased to announce that the 20th annual Tom E. Moses Memorial Lecture on the U.S. Constitution will be held on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, at 7pm in the Byrd Center auditorium on the campus of Shepherd University. This year’s address will be by author and former inspector general Glenn A. Fine.

In an America racked with deep political division, the nonpartisan role of inspectors general has never been more vital. Watchdogs: Inspectors General and the Battle for Honest and Accountable Government explores the critical role of inspectors general, who are on the frontlines in the battle against government waste, fraud, and abuse.

Glenn Fine served as the inspector general of the Department of Justice from 2000 to 2011 and as the acting inspector general of the Department of Defense from 2016 to 2020, until he was removed by President Trump as part of a series of firings that the Washington Post dubbed “the slow-motion Friday night massacre of inspectors general.”

Drawing on Fine’s own experiences as an inspector general over two decades, Watchdogs illustrates how government operates and how it spends our tax dollars. Fine provides a fascinating insider’s view of government at the highest levels and of the high stakes world of government oversight.

Full of revealing accounts of many of the most consequential inspector general investigations over the last 25 years — ranging from the FBI’s handling of evidence in the Timothy McVeigh trial to the treatment of detainees after the 9/11 attacks to the US Navy’s most infamous corruption scandal to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — Watchdogs highlights the challenges inspectors general face in ensuring government integrity. It illuminates the mission of inspectors general in improving government operations, deterring wasteful spending, fighting corruption, and promoting government transparency, and the ways inspectors general work every day in America’s unique system of oversight.

            In addition to recounting fascinating stories from his time in government, Fine outlines 10 key principles for effective inspectors general and 12 reforms to improve the inspector general system of oversight. Fine’s call for reforms, including the establishment of an inspector general for the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary, emphasizes the need for continuous and relentless oversight in a healthy democracy.

Watchdogs is an essential read for anyone invested in the rule of law, the protection of democracy, and the enduring battle for honest and accountable government.
 
Glenn A. Fine is a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution, and has taught courses on oversight of government at Georgetown Law School and Stanford Law School.  He served as the Inspector General of the Department of Justice and the Acting Inspector General of the Department of Defense. In college, Fine was the co-captain of the Harvard basketball team and was selected in the 10th round of the NBA draft by the San Antonio Spurs, despite being only 5’9.”  Instead of trying out for the Spurs, Fine attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and then Harvard Law School. 

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The Moses Memorial Lecture is named for the late Tom E. Moses, a longtime civil libertarian, activist, and founder of the Eastern Panhandle branch of the ACLU-WV.

​The inaugural Moses Lecture was given by Senator Robert C. Byrd in 2005.

Glenn A. Fine speaking at Constitution Day

Byrd Center Director Dr. James Broomall, Glenn A. Fine, and director emeritus Dr. Ray Smock

Glenn A. Fine signing copies of his book, Watchdogs: Inspectors General and the Battle for Honest and Accountable Government