Former long-time American Civil Liberties Union president Nadine Strossen will be the speaker on Monday at a UW-Eau Claire program marking this year’s Constitution Day.
Strossen will speak on “Censorship, Free Speech and the Constitution” at 5:30 p.m. in Room 1614 of Centennial Hall. The event is free and open to the public.
Strossen served as president of the ACLU from 1991 to 2008. She is the emerita John Marshall Harlan II professor of law at the New York Law School. She was the first woman and the youngest person ever to lead the ACLU.
Her most recent book is titled HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship.
Monday’s program is sponsored by UW-EC’s Menard Center for Constitutional Studies and the Pre-Law Club.
Political Science Prof. Eric Kasper, who directs the Menard Center, will moderate the program. Members of the UW-EC community will serve as discussants and there will be an opportunity for audience members to ask questions.
Free pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution will be available to the audience.
Constitution Day is an American federal observance that commemorates the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. It is normally observed on Sept. 17, the date in 1787 that delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document in Philadelphia.
When Sept. 17 falls on a weekend, the observance usually takes place the adjacent Monday or Friday. Constitution Day was formally recognized by the federal government in legislation passed in 2004.