On The Front Lines
John W. Whitehead to Speak About Threats to Freedom at Farmington Country Club as Part of Its 2012 Distinguished Speaker Series
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead will be a featured speaker at Farmington Country Club on Wednesday, May 16, as part of its 2012 Distinguished Speakers Series. Whitehead, who founded The Rutherford Institute in 1982 and has been at the forefront of many legal battles over free speech, privacy and other imperiled rights, will speak about the threats to freedom in a post-9/11 America. Whitehead will address a wide range of constitutional concerns, from First Amendment issues such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion to overreaching zero tolerance policies, Transportation Security Administration misconduct, and the heightened security and surveillance exacted upon the American people by government officials in the past decade. Farmington’s Distinguished Speakers Series, which is entering its third season, has featured many notable guests in the past, including Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Federal Judge Henry Hudson, former Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello, University of Virginia President Theresa Sullivan, and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, among others.
“A critical aspect of the defense of civil liberties is sounding the alarm and making it clear that the government is violating people’s rights on a daily basis,” said Whitehead. “By sharing this information with the public, concerned citizens can become more engaged with the slow erosion of civil liberties in this country and push back against the increasingly overbearing state.”
John W. Whitehead is an attorney and author who has written, debated and practiced widely in the area of constitutional law and human rights. Whitehead’s concern for the persecuted and oppressed led him, in 1982, to establish The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties and human rights organization whose international headquarters are located in Charlottesville, Virginia. Whitehead serves as the Institute’s president and spokesperson, in addition to writing a weekly commentary that is posted on The Rutherford Institute’s website, as well being distributed to several hundred newspapers, and hosting a national public service radio campaign. Whitehead's aggressive, pioneering approach to civil liberties issues has earned him numerous accolades, including the Hungarian Medal of Freedom.
Whitehead serves as a member of the Constitution Project, which seeks to formulate bipartisan solutions to contemporary constitutional and legal issues by combining high-level scholarship and public education. Whitehead has been the subject of numerous newspaper, magazine and television profiles. The author of numerous books on a variety of legal and social issues, as well as pamphlets and brochures providing legal information to the general public, Whitehead has also written numerous magazine and journal articles. Whitehead has filed numerous amicus briefs before the U.S. Supreme Court. He has also been co-counsel in several landmark Supreme Court cases as well. Born in 1946 in Tennessee, John W. Whitehead earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas in 1969 and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1974. He served as an officer in the United States Army from 1969 to 1971.
