We're hiring! The Knight Institute is looking for a litigator to join us for a two-year position fighting for free speech in the digital age. knightcolumbia.org/page/staff_a...

Thanks to @welch.senate.gov @vanhollen.senate.gov @durbin.senate.gov @padilla.senate.gov for their defense of the First Amendment and their support of the Land of the Free Act, which would repeal a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that Marco Rubio is using as a tool of censorship.

"During my citizenship interview, I was asked . . . would you be willing to protect and defend the Constitution of this country? I said 'yes, of course,' and within seconds ICE agents came in, handcuffed me . . ." (Mohsen Mahdawi, speaking at 37:00) www.youtube.com/live/EPtmRL5...

Like Mamdani, Carney using victories on the field and on the court to make broader points about character, solidarity. Neither mentions Trump but the contrast could not be starker.

Part of the reason intelligent people are so worried about how tomorrow’s tech will be used is that our government is using today’s tech to blow up school kids. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

I've spent the last few weeks going insane as commenters try to frame the ridiculously bad behavior of federal prosecutors as a Trump thing, and I finally got my thoughts together. some highlights in this thread, but if you'd rather just dive in: cohen489.substack.com/p/prosecutor...

New from @davidakaye.bsky.social in @knightcolumbia.org's series on "Reconstructing Free Expression." knightcolumbia.org/blog/a-norma...

That Trump is “opposed to racial preferences,” is news to me, and hard to square with, well, basically everything. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/15/o...

Wrote about Trump's interference with press pools and other public forums, and what Congress can do about it. knightcolumbia.org/blog/legisla...

Natalie Portman is right, “Russian, Israeli and Iranian filmmakers should not be threatened with erasure to atone for crimes committed by governments they often fiercely oppose.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/12/o...

For @knightcolumbia.org's "Reconstructing Free Expression" project, @katecrawford.bsky.social tackles the question of whether AI slop is "speech" within the meaning of the First Amendment. knightcolumbia.org/blog/of-slop...

Jack Smith's report about Trump's hoarding of classified docs at Mar-a-Lago should have been released months ago; the public has a right to it under FOIA, the common law, and the First Amendment. Our opening brief in our second appeal to the Eleventh Circuit. ecf.ca11.uscourts.gov/n/beam/servl...

Great piece from @dorfonlaw.bsky.social about how to limit the executive branch’s influence over universities. New in @knightcolumbia.org’s series on “Reconstructing Free Expression” knightcolumbia.org/blog/a-nongo...

They came here fleeing persecution; rather than give them refuge, Marco Rubio’s state department will send them to die in countries they’ve never been to. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/w...

I'd be interested to hear reactions from the bankers who are underwriting the SpaceX IPO--i.e. the people who will make Elon a trillionaire, and who will profit handsomely from it themselves.

Canada is reportedly considering a social-media ban for kids under 16. It's a bad idea for multiple reasons, as this very good post explains.

Broadcast a tribute to Marco Rubio, hosted a dinner to honor Trump, fired some of CBS’s most respected journalists, hired internet guy to run 60 Minutes, interfered in stories about immigration, made a respected news org the punchline of late-night television. On to CNN! nypost.com/2026/06/09/m...

It's not just that Trump and his enablers are cruel and racist; cruelty and racism are what they want to project. They want the United States to be known for those things, and increasingly it is. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/w...

This essay by @joelsimonsays.bsky.social about interviewing authoritarians is a good read and helps put that Welker/Trump interview in broader context. via @columjournreview.bsky.social www.cjr.org/feature/shou...

The seeming indifference to the UK's barring of Uyger and Piker is quite striking, and IMO explainable only by reference to the special rules that democracies have adopted for speech about Palestine. This piece by @mehdirhasan.bsky.social is excellent. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I don’t think the criticisms of Kristen Welker for trying to extend the interview after Trump’s tantrum are fair. IMO it would have been journalistic malpractice to just let Trump walk out without trying to get him to answer more questions. Maybe …

What an absolute embarrassment that we put small, mean people like this in positions of power, history should never forgive us.

How far we've fallen: "The people will not long tolerate politics or partisanship in the administration of justice ... . Congress and the people will swiftly and certainly punish those who tamper with or debase the integrity of this element of the American system." From what I've been told ...

Re-upping this thread--and this four-decade-old OLC memo--in light of Trump's plan to nominate Todd Blanche as Attorney General. threadreaderapp.com/thread/15718...

"While his bosses look (to varying degrees) like bumblers, cowards or corporate tools, Pelley will be remembered as a beacon of integrity & a symbol of righteous indignation–somebody willing to lose his job in order to speak truth to power." @sulliview.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This heinous ruling confirms a worst-case-scenario reading of Callais as an all-purpose shield for racist lawmakers who want to gerrymander Black communities into electoral oblivion. And it’s outrageously partisan—a totally unprincipled gift to the GOP. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Update: he didn't.

Authoritarians and their enablers are always demanding these kinds of apologies from people who refuse to bend. Of course he shouldn't apologize, and he won't. www.mediaite.com/media/news/b...

Pelley's principled fury only underscores how extraordinary 60 Minutes is, and how immense a void it will leave if Ellison, Weiss, and Bilton succeed in murdering it. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/b...

Fascinating profile of a photographer documenting the ICE abuses outside of NYC courtrooms. brianedsall.substack.com/p/26-federal...

As we mark the end of Jewish American Heritage Month, I want to recognize the contributions made to the culture and communities of Illinois. I'm proud to be the governor of a state where we cherish diversity — and where all faiths and backgrounds protect and embrace one another.

Had the same thought when I read this story.

Meanwhile ChatGPT trying to persuade me right now that Holmes's dissent in Abrams (1919) drew on Thomas Emerson's "The System of Freedom of Expression" (1970).

Good to see this at @lawfaremedia.org. An important public service. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

“The ideal leader of a hard-hitting investigative journalism operation is someone who is smart, driven, and virtually unemployable in any other context due to their pathological hatred of the corporate niceties used to obscure the lies of the rich and powerful.” www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/if-you-tak...

"What happens when lawyers stop believing that law and politics are different things?" Just-posted Episode 3 of @knightcolumbia.org's "Lawyering Without Law" features @katygb.bsky.social & Madhav Khosla in conversation with Princeton's @debpearlstein.bsky.social. knightcolumbia.org/content/lawy...

To its credit, ABC doesn't pull its punches in this objection to the FCC's transparently retaliatory, viewpoint-based, and therefore brazenly unconstitutional demand that it submit early applications for renewal of its broadcast licenses.

11th Circuit has set the briefing schedule for the challenges by @knightcolumbia.org & @weareoversight.bsky.social to Judge Cannon's order barring release of Jack Smith's Vol 2 Report on the classified docs case. Briefing should be done late July. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

This suggests a worrying obliviousness. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/28/b...

My latest blog post, part of @knightcolumbia.org's Reconstructing Free Expression project, on how best to make use of diverse information flows. knightcolumbia.org/blog/toward-...

“The result will be a broadcast that looks like 60 Minutes but that lacks the courage and character to produce journalism that matters" www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/b...

Thrilled to have this poem by Adam Makary in @hidden-cities.com, writing from Cairo. Style Guide the child is never named. the rubble is implied. do not use words like massacre unless sourced by three governments that did not bleed. www.hidden-cities.com/p/style-guid...

This is a complex case, but in essence the Supreme Court let stand a sweeping prior restraint that restricts immigration judges from speaking publicly in their private capacities. A serious blow to First Amendment rights, even if framed in dry procedural language. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/u...

I want to meet the NYT editor who ensorsed “selfish” here www.nytimes.com/2026/05/25/u...

"Do AI Risks Require Extraordinary Intervention?" by @randomwalker.bsky.social & @sayash.bsky.social--new at @knightcolumbia.org. Read it alongside Pope Leo's encyclical. knightcolumbia.org/blog/do-ai-r...

A striking, clarifying fact not noted here is that, per Reuters yesterday, all but 3 of the 6069 refugees admitted to the US under Trump have been white South Africans. Trump isn't focused on whether immigrants are "legal" but whether they're white. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/23/u...

Government pressure on broadcasters raises serious First Amendment concerns. @jameeljaffer.bsky.social joined @karaswisher.bsky.social on @onwithkaraswisher.bsky.social to discuss FCC Chair Brendan Carr’s recent threats against broadcasters and how regulatory threats can chill speech.

This is honestly so good in so many ways that are, whether by design or no, a rebuke to the aesthetic tyranny of the big budget, the phantom “general public,” etc, public access is strictly better than what we decided instead to pay for. Stop me before I thinkpiece but honestly though

MUST READ: One of the finest pieces written to date about the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Calláis. @cristianafarias takes it back to Mobile v. Bolden and the dissenting warning from Justice Thurgood Marshall. nymag.com/intelligence...