Viet D. Dinh

ith his seemingly boundless energy, Viet Dinh is a rising legal star in the security arena. Best known as the architect of the USA PATRIOT Act, which expanded the government's authority post-9/11, Dinh has returned to academia but still advises Justice and Homeland Security Department officials. In two years as assistant attorney general for Justice's Office of Legal Policy, Dinh racked up many policy changes-in matters from the FBI's investigative guidelines to the use of DNA in criminal cases-and still argued a case before the Supreme Court and co-taught a law school course with Deputy Solicitor General Paul Clement. "He's brilliant," says Clement, "but he has enough humility to seek out input from other people."

When Dinh came to Justice from Georgetown University Law Center, Attorney General John Ashcroft asked him to build a think tank within the department. Dinh's office developed a jurisdiction that overlapped with those of many other senior officials, and he would bypass bureaucracy, and even bash heads, to deliver on projects. Democrats say he turns "prickly" under pressure.

In June, Dinh returned to Georgetown, where he's building a new think tank-the Center for Security and Technology-to bring bright analysts together "away from the political, bureaucratic, or policy conundrums of the day." Priority No. 1: How to mesh government information systems to better fight terrorism, which he deems "not politically sexy," but crucial. "He has proved more open to questioning [the Justice Department's] measures now that he's out of the administration," says Georgetown colleague David Cole.

Now 35, Dinh's immigrant story is all-American. At age 10, he made a harrowing escape from Vietnam with his mother. He spent his teenage years in Fullerton, Calif., studied at Harvard University and Harvard Law School, and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. During the Florida presidential election recount, Dinh submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court on behalf of Bush supporters, and later defended Ashcroft's record on race during his confirmation.