Co-Sponsored by Library
Instructional Services Program – Brookens Library, Department of Legal
Studies, and American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual
Freedom
In recognition of Constitution Day the featured panel will discuss
current issues related to free speech, political discourse, race,
sexuality, and the press. They will examine how the U.S. Constitution
addresses the civil liberties related to these important issues that we
believe constitute the core of U.S. citizenship. An engaged citizen is a
one who can freely participate in political discourse and question the
actions of her government without fear for safety. Yet, as our panelists
will discuss, these fears of being silenced or marginalized remain all
too prevalent in our society because of current jurisprudential
attitudes toward hate speech, the press, and the right to privacy that
protects our individual choices relating to our own body. Our
constitutional civil liberties serve as the fundamental legal guaranties
that enable us to continue to be engaged in an open, free, and
democratic society. These liberties, as our panelists will demonstrate,
are under attack. This event will ask what we as a nation are obligated
to do in order to protect these fundamental freedoms from
anti-democratic and extra-constitutional sociopolitical forces.
James LaRue is the Director of the American Library
Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. Author of “The New
Inquisition: Understanding and Managing Intellectual Freedom
Challenges,” LaRue was a public library director for many years, as well
as a weekly newspaper columnist and cable TV host. In 2014, the
Trustees of Douglas County Libraries named a library after him, and he’s
not even dead yet.
Eugene McCarthy is an assistant professor of legal
studies at UIS. His primary intellectual focus is on comprehending and
explaining problematic or obscure areas of the law through historical,
cultural, and literary texts. He is currently engaged in scholarship
relating to constitutional hermeneutics, corporations and the law, the
pharmaceutical industry, and the role of special interests in American
legal institutions. Prior to academia, Eugene practiced as an attorney
at one of the nation’s top law firms. Eugene’s current book project
investigates the role that nineteenth-century corporate law played in
shaping American culture and society.
Deborah Anthony is an associate professor of legal
studies at UIS. Her research interests include modern and historical
gender law and politics, constitutional law, feminist perspectives on
family law, and employment discrimination. She has published on topics
such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical
Leave Act and its disparate effects on women, employment discrimination
under Title VII, parental leave policies at colleges and universities,
and sex-based rights in family law. Her project of the last several
years has focused on the historical development of women’s legal and
political status as viewed through the lens of their surnames, and
several articles have resulted which focus on specific aspects of that
development.