Former ACLU president speaks at UA
Miles Bryant
Issue date: 11/17/08 Section: News
Nadine Strossen, who spent 17 years as president of the American Civil Liberties Union, visited the University of Arkansas Lefler Law Center Thursday to talk with students and faculty about America's future.
Her conversational speech, entitled "A Conversation with Nadine Strossen about Civil Liberties Issues in the Post-Bush Era," focused on the issues the United States is and will be facing in the future. Both law students and faculty were offered pizza at the door of the E.J. Ballroom, and most ate the free meal while they listened to a brief introduction and then were allowed to say or ask anything they wanted to discuss.
Strossen gave a brief introduction that allowed her to "self-fester" before the gathering was opened for discussion. In this introduction, she explained the origin and goals of the ACLU. She also talked about the setbacks of the coming era, which was the main reason for the lecture.
"We are infinitely closer to the goals of liberty and justice for all than we were at the beginning of the 20th century," Strossen said. "That said, we are coming out a period now where we're having enormous setbacks to individual rights, most sweepingly under the guide of the so-called war on terror, which has been used unfortunately as a justification for suppressing the free speech and the privacy."
Free speech and privacy were frequent topics during the talk, and the opening question asked whether it was constitutional for protesters to be sequestered out of view of the president and vice president, which has been happening lately.
"No," Strossen quickly replied. "No, that is unconstitutional."
She went on to explain that the reason the ACLU, other organizations and lawyers exist is to protect those constitutional rights.
"The Constitution is not self-enforcing," she said. "It is violated every day. It takes actual people, living people who have the knowledge of laws, to make sure those laws are actually enforced."
Her conversational speech, entitled "A Conversation with Nadine Strossen about Civil Liberties Issues in the Post-Bush Era," focused on the issues the United States is and will be facing in the future. Both law students and faculty were offered pizza at the door of the E.J. Ballroom, and most ate the free meal while they listened to a brief introduction and then were allowed to say or ask anything they wanted to discuss.
Strossen gave a brief introduction that allowed her to "self-fester" before the gathering was opened for discussion. In this introduction, she explained the origin and goals of the ACLU. She also talked about the setbacks of the coming era, which was the main reason for the lecture.
"We are infinitely closer to the goals of liberty and justice for all than we were at the beginning of the 20th century," Strossen said. "That said, we are coming out a period now where we're having enormous setbacks to individual rights, most sweepingly under the guide of the so-called war on terror, which has been used unfortunately as a justification for suppressing the free speech and the privacy."
Free speech and privacy were frequent topics during the talk, and the opening question asked whether it was constitutional for protesters to be sequestered out of view of the president and vice president, which has been happening lately.
"No," Strossen quickly replied. "No, that is unconstitutional."
She went on to explain that the reason the ACLU, other organizations and lawyers exist is to protect those constitutional rights.
"The Constitution is not self-enforcing," she said. "It is violated every day. It takes actual people, living people who have the knowledge of laws, to make sure those laws are actually enforced."
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