2010 Events

"Privacy and the Press:
Scoops, Secrets, and Ethics in the New Media Landscape"

December 3, 2010
9:30am-4:15pm
Wittemyer Courtroom
Wolf Law Building
University of Colorado

The rise of blogs, social networks, and other new media channels are putting pressure on the way we think about two important and legally protected values: personal privacy and the free press. How are changes in the way we produce and consume the news altering these values, and how should we balance these values when they collide in new ways? As traditional newspaper business models have begun to falter, some newspapers have subtly shifted the way they report the news in ways that may tread upon traditional notions of personal privacy. It has become common to read in the mainstream news media about the private thoughts of minor figures as gleaned from postings to Facebook. In the meantime, the "new media" has done more than subtly shifted away from past practice; they are in many ways rewriting the rules of journalism, publicity, and privacy.

Should we try to resist any of these changes, or are they simply the growing pains of progress? If we do want to resist, can we use markets, industry self-regulation, codes of conduct, lawsuits, or legislation as our tools? Does the First Amendment put limits on either attempts to protect personal privacy or the power of the press?

Join the Keller Center for the Study of the First Amendment, the Silicon Flatirons Center at the University of Colorado Law School, the Byron R. White Center, and the ATLAS Institute as we explore personal privacy and the free press in the shifting new media landscape. Leading academics and practitioners will present new scholarship addressing these issues, and media participants and other thought leaders will comment on these works and debate these issues.


“Citizens United v. FEC, the Aftermath:
We the People, Not We the Corporations”

Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Wolf Law, room 204, 5–6pm

A Discussion Forum, featuring

  • Marge Baker, Executive Vice President for Policy and Program at the People for the American Way

  • John Bonifaz, Legal Director of Voter Action and Director of Free Speech for People

  • Roxana Orrell, Attorney, member of the National Lawyers Guild Executive Council

  • Joseph D. Neguse, Attorney at Holland & Hart’s Litigation Department


The Most Dangerous Man in America:
Documentary and Q & A with Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg
September 30, 2010, 7pm
Humanities 1B50

A new documentary about Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers and helped end the Vietnam War, followed by a conversation with Daniel Ellsberg via Skype

Please join the Keller Center for the First Amendment and the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center for a FREE screening of this new documentary, and a question and answer session with Daniel Ellsberg, whose act of leaking the Pentagon Papers led Henry Kissinger to call him “the most dangerous man in America.” This discussion will be particularly timely given the recent controversy surrounding WikiLeaks and the War in Afghanistan.


"The Human Right to Democracy"

Thomas Christiano
April 30, 2010 11:30-1pm
Atlas 229

The Keller Center is pleased to sponsor a talk by Thomas Christiano (PhD. Philosophy, University of Illinois, Chicago), Professor of Philosophy and Law, and co-director of the Rogers Program in Law, at the University of Arizona. Professor Christiano's current work focuses on the foundations of equality as a principle of distributive justice; and on the bases of international justice, the legitimacy of international institutions, and human rights.


“Civility and Public Reason:
Debating the Moral Limits on Speech”

Simone Chambers
April 8, 2010, 2-3:30pm
UMC 382-384

The Keller Center is pleased to sponsor a visit by Simone Chambers, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. Professor Chambers is currently writing a book entitled Public Reason and Deliberation, which investigates the role of citizen deliberation in contemporary democratic theory.


Free Speech and Corporate Speech:
CU Law's Robert Nagel, Richard Collins, and Helen Norton on "Citizens United v. FEC"

March 15, 2010
3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
Old Main Chapel

The Keller Center and the CU Law School’s Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law are pleased to sponsor a panel discussion on the landmark Supreme Court Case, Citizens United v. FEC .


"Integrating Muslims in Western Democracies:
Reactive Identity, Ethnic Heterogeneity and Religious Regulation"

Steven J. Pfaff
March 8, 2010
11:30-1pm, Ketchum 116

Dr. Pfaff, an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for West European Studies at the University of Washington, will be presenting his theory of the social and institutional conditions that create different propensities for Islamist mobilization in Western polities.


Government Speech: The 17th Ira C. Rothgerber, Jr. Conference

January 22, 2010
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Old Supreme Court Chambers
Colorado State Capitol, Denver

Sponsored by:
The Keller Center for the Study of the First Amendment
The Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law
The Denver University Law Review

The Supreme Court did not recognize government speech as a matter of constitutional law until the 1990s. A series of decisions has since begun to give shape to a government speech doctrine. Both relatively new and decidedly incomplete, a number of important questions about this doctrine remain unresolved, including the distinction between government and private speech, and the nature of government speech during wartime. These, and other issues, are the subjects of the 17th Ira C. Rothgerber Conference "Government Speech in Transition", to be held on January 22, 2010 at the Old Supreme Court Chambers of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver.