Profiles of the Contributors

 

 

Beverley Becker is Associate Director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association in Chicago, where she maintains the Intellectual Freedom Action Network.  She received her M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.   

 

Deborah Caldwell-Stone is Deputy Director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom in Chicago.  She also serves as the Deputy Executive Director of the Freedom To Read Foundation.  Before coming to the ALA, she was an appellate attorney practicing in state and federal courts.   

 

Robert Corn-Revere is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, specializing in First Amendment and communications law.  From 1994 to 2003 he was a partner at Hogan & Hartson LLP in Washington, D.C.  Mr. Corn-Revere was a legal advisor to former FCC commissioner James H. Quello from 1990 to 1994, and in 1994 served as Chief Counsel of the FCC.  He is Chairman of The Media Institute’s First Amendment Advisory Council.   

 

Lucy Dalglish has been Executive Director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Arlington, Va., since January 2000.  She was a reporter and editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press for 13 years and an associate in the Minneapolis office of Dorsey & Whitney, specializing in First Amendment and media law, for five years.   

 

Ashley Gauthier is legal counsel for U.S. News & World Report, and was the 2000-2002 Robert R. McCormick Tribune Legal Fellow at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.  She lectures in communications law at The American University and has authored numerous articles on First Amendment law.  Ms. Gauthier previously was a litigation attorney, and held legal and public affairs positions in Albuquerque.   

 

Kevin M. Goldberg is an associate with the firm of Cohn and Marks in Washington, D.C., who specializes in First Amendment and constitutional law issues.  He received his J.D. with High Honors from The George Washington University National Law Center in 1995, where he was also the recipient of the Imogene Williford Constitutional Law Award.   

 

David L. Hudson, Jr. is a research attorney for the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University.  He writes regularly on a variety of First Amendment issues for the “First Amendment Center Online” at www.firstamendmentcenter.org.   He serves as a First Amendment contributing editor for the American Bar Association’s Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases.      

 

Judith F. Krug is Director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and Executive Director of the Freedom To Read Foundation.  She is responsible for implementing ALA policies concerning intellectual freedom as embodied in the Library Bill of Rights, and educating librarians and the public about the importance of intellectual freedom in libraries.  She is a noted speaker and author on the topic of intellectual freedom.  

 

Tony Mauro is Supreme Court Correspondent for Legal Times and American Lawyer Media.  He covered the Supreme Court for USA Today and Gannett News Service for 20 years.  Mr. Mauro holds a Master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.  He is the author of Illustrated Great Decisions of the Supreme Court, and has contributed chapters to three other books on the Supreme Court.     

 

Paul McMasters is First Amendment Ombudsman at the First Amendment Center of The Freedom Forum, based in Arlington, Va.  A veteran of more than 30 years in journalism, Mr. McMasters served previously as Executive Director of the First Amendment Center and as Associate Editorial Director of USA Today.  He is a former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists and of the SPJ foundation, Sigma Delta Chi.   

 

Robert M. O’Neil has, since 1990, been Founding Director of The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression in Charlottesville.  He is also a professor of law at the University of Virginia, where he teaches courses in free speech and press, including seminars on First Amendment and the arts and free expression in cyberspace.  Prof. O’Neil is a former president of the University of Virginia.  

 

Robert S. Peck is President of the Center for Constitutional Litigation, P.C., where he practices constitutional law.  He teaches constitutional law at the law schools of The American University and George Washington University.  Previously, Mr. Peck served as First Amendment counsel for the Washington national office of the American Civil Liberties Union.   

 

Judith Platt is Director of Communications and Public Affairs and Director of the Freedom To Read Program at the Association of American Publishers in Washington, D.C.  She is responsible for articulating the views of the U.S. book publishing industry on free speech issues and opposing attempts to undermine First Amendment rights.  She is a Trustee of the ALA-affiliated Freedom To Read Foundation.   

 

J. Laurent Scharff is a communications attorney based in Reston, Va.  He is a former partner of Reed Smith Shaw & McClay in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in First Amendment issues involving electronic media.  Mr. Scharff also served as General Counsel of the Radio-Television News Directors Association in Washington.   

 

Richard M. Schmidt, Jr. has served as General Counsel of the American Society of Newspaper Editors since 1969.  Of counsel to the Washington, D.C., law firm of Cohn and Marks, Mr. Schmidt is a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Press Foundation.  He is a recipient of The Media Institute’s Freedom of Speech Award.   

 

Craig R. Smith is President of the Freedom of Expression Foundation and professor of communication studies at California State University, Long Beach, where he directs the Center for First Amendment Studies.  He has twice won the National Communication Association’s Robert O’Neil Award.  He has written 50 scholarly articles and 12 books including Silencing the Opposition: Government Strategies of Suppression.  

 

Rodney A. Smolla is the recently appointed Dean of the T.C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond.  He had been the George Allen Professor of Law at the school.  Previously he was a law professor and Director of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law at the College of William and Mary.  A graduate of Yale University and Duke Law School, Prof. Smolla has authored three treatises and several other books, and co-authored a casebook on constitutional law.    

 

Sara Thacker is the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Legal Fellow at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.  Prior to joining the Reporters Committee, Ms. Thacker worked for four years as a commercial litigation and media law associate for two international law firms.  She is a 1998 graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law and a 1994 graduate of the Indiana University School of Journalism.   

 

Kurt Wimmer is the managing partner of the London office of Covington & Burling, where he focuses on media law, Internet law, and protection of intellectual property for media, television, and software companies.  He also advises journalists on new media laws in emerging democracies.  Mr. Wimmer co-chairs the firm’s Information Technology practice group, and is also co-chair of the Media Law Resource Center’s International Media Law Committee.   

 

Laurence H. Winer is a professor of law and Faculty Fellow of the Center for the Study of Law, Science and Technology at Arizona State University College of Law.  He specializes in media law, constitutional law, and legal ethics.  Prof. Winer received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. (all in mathematics) from Boston University, and received his law degree from Yale Law School.  He is a former editor in chief of the Jurimetrics Journal of Law, Science and Technology.   

 

Mark S. Zaid is managing partner of the Washington, D.C., law firm of Krieger & Zaid, P.L.L.C., where he specializes in national security, First Amendment, Freedom of Information, and other constitutional law disputes.  He also serves as Executive Director of The James Madison Project, a nonprofit organization that educates the public on national security and intelligence matters.  He is the co-editor of Litigation Under the Federal Government’s Openness Laws 2002.   

 

Harvey L. Zuckman is immediate past director of The Institute for Communications Law Studies at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.  He is a professor of law at the university’s Columbus School of Law, and has written extensively on First Amendment and media law subjects.  Prof. Zuckman is the co-author of Modern Communication Law, a multi-volume treatise, and Mass Communications Law, a widely used student text.  

 

The Editor:  Richard T. Kaplar is Vice President of The Media Institute in Washington, D.C.  He has written, edited, or produced more than 40 books and monographs on a variety of First Amendment and communications policy topics.  Mr. Kaplar is the author of Advertising Rights:  The Neglected Freedom, and co-author of The Government Factor:  Undermining Journalistic Ethics in the Information Age.