ACLU President, Children's Rights Crusader Debate Internet Safeguards at UH Law Center
Two noted media figures will debate the controversial “Child Online Protection Act” (COPA) Tuesday at the University of Houston Law Center sponsored by Andrews & Kurth L.L.P. Donna Rice Hughes, founder of an organization devoted to making the Internet safer for children, and ACLU president Nadine Strossen, will discuss the pros and cons of the 1998 law making it a federal crime to use the Internet to communicate “for commercial purposes” any material considered “harmful to minors.” In May of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an injunction barring enforcement of that law and sent the case back to the appellate court level.
Strossen, a professor at New York University, attended Harvard Law School. She was first elected president of the ACLU in 1991, the first woman to head the civil liberties organization. Hughes, president of the Internet-monitoring group Enough Is Enough, served on the COPA Commission. She first entered the public spotlight in 1987 as a principal in a romantic scandal that ended then-U.S. Sen. Gary Hart’s presidential aspirations. She graduated from the University of South Carolina magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
Sidney Buchanan, UH Law Center professor, will moderate the debate, which is being underwritten by the law firm of Andrews & Kurth. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is requested. Call 713/743-2201.
