The Berkman Center is pleased to host an informal discussion with Ann Beeson, Associate Legal Director of the ACLU, on October 21, 3:30-4:30pm in the Berkman Center conference room.  Ann will be talking about her work challenging the government's expanded surveillance powers under the USA Patriot Act.  In recent years, Ann has litigated several of the most important Internet-related free speech cases.  In November 2001, she argued before the United States Supreme Court in Ashcroft vs. ACLU, a challenge to the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), in which the lower courts had struck down Congress' attempt to impose criminal sanctions on protected Internet speech.  As counsel for plaintiffs in Reno v. ACLU (along with Berkman Senior Fellow Andrew McLaughlin), Beeson was a primary architect of the landmark case in which the Supreme Court in 1997 declared the Communications Decency Act (CDA) unconstitutional and unequivocally affirmed free speech rights in cyberspace.  Seating is limited and will be first-come, first-served.