The Center for the Study of Government and the Individual hosted a dinner conversation with Roger K. Newman on Thursday, September 6, 2007. Newman discussed freedom and technology in a time of crisis against the commands of the Constitution. The cost was $25 per person and it included dinner.

Roger Newman, whose biography of Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black won the Scribes Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, gave this presentation to UCCS students and professors as well as community participants.

Roger Newman’s biography of Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black won the Scribes Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The New York Times called Roger Newman’s biography of Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, “a giant book on a giant man.” PBS used it as the basis for one of the programs in its series this year on the history of the Supreme Court on which Roger Newman also appeared several times.

If the first casualty of war is truth, civil liberty is second. Panic leads the way, with such examples as the internment of American citizens of Japanese descent during World War II and McCarthyism purges during the Cold War.

The reaction to 9-11 threatens to restrict civil liberties on a far greater scale and in ways we do not yet know. To an unparalleled extent the government is monitoring and keeping records of our private communications. Wiretapping and other electronic surveillance of communication networks are now widespread. The dangers are self-evident. Roger Newman will discuss freedom and technology in a time of crisis against the commands of the Constitution.

[The table on the right links to the webcast and audio of Prof. Newman's presentation.]