Judge Stewart Dalzell To Speak At Muhlenberg College
The Honorable Stewart Dalzell will give a speech, “Reconciling Conflicting Freedoms,” at Muhlenberg College on November 14 at 7 p.m. in Miller Forum, Moyer Hall.Wednesday, November 8, 2006 01:59 PM
The event, part of the semester-long series Freedom Matters, is free and open to the public.
Judge Dalzell will speak about the many conflicting freedoms in the United States, and the need for an understanding and unification of these conflicts.
Dalzell is judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and specializes in judging cases involving freedom of expression and freedom of religion. For example, in 2002, he ordered officials in Chester County, Pa., to remove a plaque of the Ten Commandments from their courthouse. His ruling stated, "The only plaque on the courthouse facade with any substantive content is the Ten Commandment tablet. With neither the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Mayflower Compact nor any other fundamental legal text flanking it, the tablet's necessary effect on those who see it is to endorse or advance the unique importance of this predominantly religious text for mainline Protestantism."
In 1996, Dalzell was part of a three-judge panel that ruled against the Communications Decency Act, which would have criminalized the displaying or transmission of content available to minors that was deemed offensive or indecent. The Act was deemed to be in violation of the First Amendment protection of free expression.
In his decision, Dalzell noted that while it is desirable to protect children from pornography, the CDA failed adequately to define indecency and that, moreover, as “the most participatory marketplace of mass speech that this country -- and indeed the world -- has yet seen,” the internet represents a unique form of speech that should be free from government interference. He noted that “the strength of our liberty depends upon the chaos and cacophony of the unfettered speech the First Amendment protects.”
Freedom Matters, sponsored by the Muhlenberg College Center for Ethics, brings programming about the history, limits and controversial components of freedom to campus.
For more information on the series, or to view the schedule of events for the fall semester, please visit: www.muhlenberg.edu/cultural/ethics.
Muhlenberg College gratefully acknowledges the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation's support of the Center for Ethics.
