🧵 The arguments behind landmark Supreme Court rulings have never been freely available… until now. More than 125,000 #SCOTUS records & briefs (1830–2019) are now open on the Internet Archive. Full announcement ⤵️ blog.archive.org/2026/04/20/u... @wolflawlibrary.bsky.social

Any news coverage of Trump’s threat of U.S. strikes where “a whole civilization will die” that does not include the words “war crimes” is failing to do journalism.

The Supreme Court refuses to review an odious 5th Circuit decision granting qualified immunity to Texas officials who arrested a citizens-journalist in retaliation against her posing questions to public officials. Sotomayor has an appropriately furious dissent: www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

The seizure of Washington Post reporter @hannahnatanson.bsky.social's devices likely killed far more stories than any court order ever could. Judge Porter should've done more to punish prosecutors, but he was right to call the raid what it was — a prior restraint.

Turner on Artificial Legal Agents Christian Turner (University of Georgia School of Law) has posted Artificial Legal Agents and the Alien Stance on SSRN. Here is the abstract: We find ourselves ensnared in an ever nastier and strident debate over AI and its role in law, society, and private life.…

TOMORROW: Join @randersenjones.bsky.social, @sonjawest.bsky.social, @ckoningisor.bsky.social, Helen Norton and @victorpickard.bsky.social on Zoom from 12-1:30 p.m. to discuss "The Future of Press Freedom." Register: events.zoom.us/ev/AmsN0eMJS...

Any news coverage of these attacks that does not include the word “Congress” in either its headline or lede is failing to do journalism.

New: As David Ellison prepares to take control of CNN, legendary CBS News producer Mary Walsh, who is exiting, sent a goodbye note to colleagues. In the note, Walsh writes, "We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum. Honestly, I don’t know how to do that."

This is great. A rich and insightful conversation about press freedom and contemporary threats to it—with @dahlialithwick.bsky.social & former @knightcolumbia.org visiting scholars @randersenjones.bsky.social & @sonjawest.bsky.social. slate.com/news-and-pol...

chewing over tariffs with @mjsdc.bsky.social and taking a long hard look at the limits of the press clause and constitutional protections for newsgathering with @randersenjones.bsky.social and @sonjawest.bsky.social

Very excited to get my author’s copy of “We the Voters: The Constitutional Choices that Shape America’s Elections.” This was a labor of love, and it is thrilling to see it materialize in the real world.

A publisher who lays off a reporter whose pen is freezing because she's covering a frigid war zone while dodging missiles is not an editor you want to work for, in a more perfect world

“As an international organization, we know that the treatment of journalists is a leading indicator of the condition of a country’s democracy,” said CPJ CEO @jodieginsberg.bsky.social. Read more on the arrests of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort: cpj.org/2026/01/cpj-...

@rcfp.org's statement on the arrest of independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, who were charged with violating federal law while covering a protest inside a Minnesota church. 🔗 Read more: www.rcfp.org/lemon-fort-a...

Katherine Jacobsen of the Committee to Protect Journalists reacts to the arrest of Don Lemon: "As an international organization, we know that the treatment of journalists is an indicator of the condition of a country's democracy. The United States is doing poorly."

The FBI’s raid today on the home of @washingtonpost.com reporter @hannahnatanson.bsky.social is an alarming escalation in the Trump administration’s war on the press. Watch @trevortimm.bsky.social explain how the DOJ is not only attacking the First Amendment but also ignoring federal law.

Recent Faculty Presentations! Elizabeth Chamblee Burch presented at Yale University, Pamela Foohey presented at the University of Illinois, and Sonja West presented at the University of Chicago, Yale University and Columbia University. www.law.uga.edu/faculty-high...

Honored! Anyone curious to read the article can find it here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Thanks to @lsolum.bsky.social for naming my piece with @thomaskadri.bsky.social on Deepfake Torts as one of the top ten “Downloads of the Year” for 2025! legaltheoryblog.com/2026/01/01/d...

You know what media is NOT bending the knee in the Trump era? College journalists! The Harvard Crimson's brutal takedown of the lecherous ex-prez Larry Summers is just the latest example of students showing a failing 'grown-up' media how it's done My new column www.inquirer.com/columnists/a...

Full house for "The Future of Press Freedom in an Era of Democratic Backsliding" panel. Thank you @randersenjones.bsky.social, @attorneynora.bsky.social, @azmatzahra.bsky.social, @joelsimonsays.bsky.social, @sulliview.bsky.social, & @sonjawest.bsky.social for joining us to discuss #pressfreedom.

📍TOMORROW: A panel of legal experts and journalists discuss how to protect #pressfreedom and support journalists under Trump. Feat. @randersenjones.bsky.social, @attorneynora.bsky.social, @azmatzahra.bsky.social, @joelsimonsays.bsky.social, @sulliview.bsky.social, and @sonjawest.bsky.social. RSVP.

My new piece with @sonjawest.bsky.social is live in the Journal of Tort Law! Our original 50-state survey of 466 deepfake laws reveals a complex landscape in which lawmakers are experimenting with novel criminal, civil & administrative tools to address deepfakes. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

📌 11/5 EVENT: A panel of legal experts and journalists discuss how to protect #pressfreedom and support journalists under Trump. Feat. @randersenjones.bsky.social, @attorneynora.bsky.social, @azmatzahra.bsky.social, @joelsimonsays.bsky.social, @sulliview.bsky.social, & @sonjawest.bsky.social. RSVP.

Thanks to @lsolum.bsky.social for the generous recommendation of my forthcoming piece with @sonjawest.bsky.social!

Download of the Week: "Deepfake Torts" by Kadri & West,, buff.ly/mHVqTbJ - The Download of the Week is Deepfake Torts: Emerging Tort Frameworks in U.S. Deepfake Regulation by Thomas Kadri & Sonja West.

I wrote for the @nytimes.com about the administration’s abandonment of statistics and data in favor of information as an instrument of raw control

The essays written for our @knightcolumbia.org "Future of Press Freedom" project with @randersenjones.bsky.social and @sonjawest.bsky.social are now published in an open-access edited volume from @cambup-law.cambridge.org. 26 essays from an incredible group of scholars 👇

The Future of Press Freedom: Democracy, Law, and the News in Changing Times eds. @randersenjones.bsky.social of @sjquinney.bsky.social & @sonjawest.bsky.social of @universityofga.bsky.social Out Now & #OpenAccess #Politics #LawSky 💙📚 cup.org/3IYbrHA

We're excited to announce that Professor @randersenjones.bsky.social has published a new book with @sonjawest.bsky.social!

Since April 4, #SCOTUS has issued 15 rulings on 17 emergency applications filed by Trump (three birthright citizenship apps were consolidated). It has granted relief to Trump ... in all 15 rulings. It has written majority opinions in only 3. Today's order is the 7th with no explanation *at all.*

Also: Bribing public officials is a federal crime, even when you do it in broad daylight. This will be on the test.

Quick First Amendment refresher: The press is supposed to check the government not write checks to the government. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/b...

This is a major blow for press freedom in the United States - a major news outlet caving to groundless threats from the President over coverage www.nytimes.com/2025/07/02/b...

Trump considers forcing journalists to reveal sources who leaked Iran report

The targeting of reporters in LA is inexcusable. The public interest in press coverage of protests couldn’t be more self-evident. We helped lead this letter to remind federal officers of journalists’ constitutional right to report on civil unrest. media.freedom.press/media/docume...

Law enforcement is violently targeting press at protests around Los Angeles, from easily recognizable "mainstream" outlets to freelancers and independents. ALL press have explicit legal protections in California. #JournalismIsNotACrime. This evidence thread may get graphic. 🧵👇

NEW YORK (AP) - Jury finds that The New York Times did not libel former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in a 2017 editorial.

With blazing clarity, ill will has been embraced by this president as a reason for targeting individuals and institutions, even when it’s, at best, loosely linked to his policy ambitions, Aziz Huq writes. "This is a serious legal flaw." wapo.st/4cmKAQa

Want to know why the Trump admin's efforts to exclude the AP from the WH press pool violates central 1A principles not only as of today but as of 1791? Then check out this brief, I wrote with @knightcolumbia.org and 11 other 1A scholars. Spoiler: bc it violates CORE DEMOCRATIC VALUES

The choice by prestigious law firms to keep quiet against President Trump's attacks is deeply wrong, @debpearlstein.bsky.social writes. “Above all, it is futile, as it will do nothing to protect the firms from the extortion-based governance we now appear to face for at least the next four years.”

Excellent statement from a number of Con Law scholars--including some notably conservative ones--on the government's funding cutoff at Columbia/ www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

My message to my fellow Americans: it’s time to choose Defiant Jazz.

This just breaks my heart. WaPo has been my go-to first read for years. The paper of Woodward and Bernstein and Katherine Graham. So very sad.

Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin's reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access.

If you're curious how a democracy transitions from a free press to state-run media, this is the kind of step you'd expect to see.

Wow: City of Clarksdale, Mississippi got a court order yesterday directing a newspaper to delete an editorial criticizing city officials -- without a hearing. Here's the TRO issuing the prior restraint:

I was led to believe by R.E.M. that I would feel a lot better about this.