In Memoriam: Barry Steinhardt

Barry Steinhardt, who died at 73, was a pioneering lawyer and organizer in digital civil liberties and privacy. A Connecticut native, he led state ACLU affiliates in Vermont and Pennsylvania, became associate director of the national ACLU, and was a central figure in the litigation that dismantled major portions of the Communications Decency Act, culminating in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Reno v. ACLU decision in 1997. As one of the first attorneys to focus on the intersection of technology and privacy, he served as Electronic Frontier Foundation president in 1998-99, founded the ACLU’s Program on Technology and Liberty in 2002, and later advised Privacy International in London.

His career also included convening and advising influential policy and technical forums: he chaired the 2003 Computer Freedom and Privacy Conference, participated in the Department of Transportation’s negotiated rulemaking on national driver’s license standards, advised the U.S. Census committee and a genetics panel for state legislatures, joined the U.S. delegation to the G-8 Tokyo cybercrime conference, and advised the Czech Helsinki Committee. Colleagues credit him with shaping law and policy that restrained surveillance, advanced privacy protections, and mentored a generation of advocates working to safeguard civil liberties in the digital era.