August 28, 2000
RELEASE ON RECEIPT

CONSTITUTIONAL EXPERT TO DISCUSS "REPUBLIC.COM: DEMOCRACY AND THE INTERNET" AT OBERLIN COLLEGE

OBERLIN, OHIO--Will the Internet foster interchange among groups and individuals with different viewpoints? Or will it diminish the possibility of robust debate on political and social questions among individuals and groups, and especially with those with whom they may disagree?

These and other questions will be explored in depth by Cass R. Sunstein, perhaps the foremost constitutional scholar of our generation, in an Oberlin College Danforth Lecture titled "Republic.Com: Democracy and the Internet" at 8 P.M., Monday, September 11.

Sunstein is the Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Chicago law school, political-science department, and the undergraduate college.

"Public deliberation is central to our need as a democracy to make its most difficult choices," says Ron Kahn, Oberlin James Monroe Professor of Politics and Law, "and to ensure a robust marketplace of ideas which fosters First Amendment freedoms of speech.

"Professor Sunstein will discuss the impact of the Internet on the ability of our nation, with its diverse groups and interests, to deliberate controversial questions that are important to all citizens and to the public as a whole."

Sunstein clerked for Justice Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court. He has served as an attorney-advisor in the office of legal counsel of the U.S. department of justice and held the position of visiting professor of law at Columbia and Harvard.

The winner of numerous awards and honors, Sunstein received Harvard University’s 1994 Goldsmith Book Award for Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech (awarded for best book on free speech)

A member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Public Service Obligations of Digital Television (1997-1998), Sunstein has testified before Senate and House Committees on numerous legal subjects, usually involving separation of powers, administrative law, regulatory policy, and constitutional law.

He has also testified before a number of other national and local government bodies, including the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Government Affairs Committee, House Rules Committee, Attorney General's commission on Pornography, and Illinois House of Representatives.

Sunstein has been asked to advise on law reform and constitution-making efforts in various nations including: Ukraine, Romania, Poland, South Africa, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Albania, Israel, and China.

The co-author with Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court (and two other authors) of Administrative Law and Regulatory Policy (1999), Sunstein has published 14 books, including The Partial Constitution (1993), One Case At A Time: Judicial Minimalism on the Supreme Court (Harvard,1999), Clones and Clones: Facts and Fantasies About Human Cloning (with Martha Nussbaum) (Norton, 1998), Free Markets and Social Justice (Oxford, 1997) and Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech (The Free Press 1993).

He has authored over 150 articles, among them numerous articles and essays covering such topics as environmental law, ethics, presidential impeachment and the first amendment. Several of his more recent articles are, "Television and the Public Interest," California Law Review; "Group Dynamics" in Aftermath, a forthcoming book on Clinton impeachment; and "American Advice and New Constitutions" Chicago J. of International Law.

Media Contact: Scott Wargo 1/9/00 #12 sw