Dec 28, 2017

Did the founders intend for the First Amendment to protect as much speech as it does today?

University of Richmond Assistant Professor of Law Jud Campbell argues probably not. He is the author of an article recently published in The Yale Law Journal that Cass Sunstein says “might well be the most illuminating work...

Dec 13, 2017

The Institute for Justice doesn’t litigate your typical First Amendment cases.

They don’t take cases involving protest bans, controversial speakers, or political dissent. Instead, the libertarian, public-interest law firm takes cases often ascribed to the margins of First Amendment concerns by the public and even...

Nov 30, 2017

Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten (1917) might be the most important free speech case you’ve never heard of.

In his now largely forgotten decision in the case, then Southern District of New York Judge Learned Hand rejected the United States postmaster general’s arguments for refusing to mail Masses magazine. The...

Nov 15, 2017

Harvard University professor and FIRE Advisory Council member Steven Pinker is a rockstar academic. He has written 10 books, many of which are bestsellers, including most recently “The Better Angels of our Nature” and “The Sense of Style.”

On this episode of So to Speak, we chat with professor Pinker about...

Nov 2, 2017

Nowhere have the campus free speech debates been as intense as at the University of California, Berkeley — the home of the Free Speech Movement.

Violent protests against one speaker. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in security costs to protect another. Speaking invitations extended and then (maybe?) rescinded. And...