Profiles: Claude Allen '90
Privileged to serve the President
My Duke training...helped me come to this job with a sense of confidence that I have the skills necessary to do the job, even though the issues change every single day
Claude Allen grew up with lofty aspirations, and an attitude that the sky was the limit. The purview of his current job as domestic policy adviser to President George W. Bush extends further–into space.
"The job really covers everything from health care to education, to housing, to space and everything in between," said Allen, laughing. "It's very exciting. You get to impact and advise the president on policy issues across the board."
While emphasizing that his role is not to set but to oversee implementation of the president's vision through all government agencies, Allen is quick to list higher education, immigration, and litigation–medical liability, class action, and asbestos–as priority areas for reform.
"Action in all these areas will have lasting results to benefit American society," he said.
What's the chief skill required to get the job done?
"Juggling–being able to manage the myriad of issues that come before us, distill them down, and weigh them against the president's vision. There's a great deal of diplomacy and mediation involved.
Allen speaks fondly of his years at Duke, where he combined a JD with an LLM in international and comparative law. He says he was particularly affected by the death penalty course he took with Professor James Coleman.
"I believe that the state has the right to impose the death penalty, but I have trouble with how it is applied. Jim Coleman came to Duke off the heels of the Ted Bundy case, and convincingly argued that Bundy was wrongly executed–not because he didn't commit the crimes, but on the underlying conviction, and the evidence that was introduced to support that conviction. He caught my attention with that analysis. I appreciated his logic and pursuit of the truth."
Allen subsequently worked on a death penalty case in which the issue was not the guilt of the condemned individual, but whether the penalty was imposed in a just manner. His current position allows him to remain involved; the domestic policy agenda includes a proposal to train lawyers and judges to properly conduct and rule on capital defenses, as well as funds to allow death row inmates to have access to DNA testing for the purposes of exoneration.
Although his position highlights domestic issues, Allen says that his LLM in international and comparative law comes in handy.
"A lot of domestic policy is closely tied with foreign policy. For example, with respect to HIV/AIDS policy, I make sure that our domestic policy is consistent with our foreign policy–in each case we have to focus on provision of health care and pharmaceuticals, and target trafficking in people for exploitation, including sex trafficking. We have to make sure that America continues to be innovative in research and development."
Having served since March 2001 as deputy secretary/chief operating officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Allen expresses "amazement and tremendous humility" in the trust the president has placed in him.
"He's given me a very high privilege and honor."
While some have labeled Allen a far-right conservative–he has long been a champion of abstinence-only sex education, and counts among his mentors conservative icons, former Senator Jesse Helms, to whom he was an aide in the 1980s, as well as Justice Clarence Thomas–he sees himself as both flexible and reasonable in the pursuit of policy and the pursuit of excellence in policy development, and not easy to pigeonhole.
In 2003, the president honored Allen with a nomination to the Fourth Circuit, but it was blocked in the Senate. Democrats contended that Allen, then 42, was inexperienced and overly conservative, challenging his records as HHS deputy secretary and as Virginia's Secretary of Health and Human Resources on such issues as reproductive rights, sex education, and welfare. Some critics also accused Allen of homophobia, citing remarks he made two decades earlier when he worked as an aide to Helms. While Allen believes strongly that the president's judicial nominees deserve straight up or down votes in the Senate, he expresses no regret about having subjected himself to the confirmation process.
"I am now where I am supposed to be. I enjoy public service, and serve where I am asked to. It was a privilege to be nominated.
One of the things I have learned is to keep a blind eye and a deaf ear. I don't take compliments too seriously, lest they make me prideful, and don't take criticisms too harshly, lest they cause me to become discouraged.