Nadine Strossen

Nadine Strossen

Senior Fellow, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)

Nadine Strossen, the John Marshall Harlan II Professor Emerita at New York Law School and past national President of the American Civil Liberties Union (1991-2008), is a Senior Fellow with FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education) and a leading expert and frequent speaker/media commentator on constitutional law and civil liberties, who has testified before Congress on multiple occasions. She serves on the advisory boards of the ACLU, Academic Freedom Alliance, Heterodox Academy, National Coalition Against Censorship, and the University of Austin.

The National Law Journal has named Strossen one of America’s "100 Most Influential Lawyers"; several other publications have named her one of the country’s most influential women; and she has received many honorary degrees and awards. In 2023, the National Coalition Against Censorship (an alliance of more than 50 national non-profit organizations) selected Strossen for its Lifetime Achievement
Award for Free Speech.

When Strossen stepped down as ACLU President, three (ideologically diverse) Supreme Court Justices participated in her farewell/tribute luncheon: Justices Ginsburg, Scalia, and Souter.

She is the author of HATE: Why We Should Resist It with Free Speech, Not Censorship (2018) and Free Speech: What Everyone Needs to Know (forthcoming October 2023). She is also the Host and Project Consultant for Free To Speak, a 3-hour documentary film series on free speech scheduled for release on public television in October 2023.

Her book Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights was named a New York Times “notable book” of 1995 and will be republished in 2024 as part of the New York University Press “Classic” series. Her book HATE was selected as the “Common Read” by Washington University and Washburn University.