that's why you bring the US flag to protests, folks

In this post I explain why the suspension of Kimmel’s show looks like a blatant 1A violation, as all NINE members of SCOTUS last year made clear.... but also why courts may not be able to do much about it (and yet Kimmel should still sue!) blog.dividedargument.com/p/did-brenda...

The Court just ruled a year ago (in NRA v Vullo) that "government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors."

Read @daphnek.bsky.social on jawboning below - and more posts in the @knightcolumbia.org jawboning series she wrote for are available here: knightcolumbia.org/research/jaw...

Denying passports to citizens, stripping visas, denying visitors' entry on ideological grounds - we've seen this before, in the McCarthy era. Here's Sam Lebovic, an excellent historian of this period, on efforts to restrict Americans' access to ideas from abroad: knightcolumbia.org/content/do-a...

New @knightcolumbia.org essay on how the IHRA definition of antisemitism now being adopted by many universities harms academic freedom and chills speech, by Kenneth S. Stern of @bardcollege.bsky.social, the original drafter of that definition. knightcolumbia.org/content/a-ba...

New @knightcolumbia.org essay on how the IHRA definition of antisemitism now being adopted by many universities harms academic freedom and chills speech, by Kenneth S. Stern of @bardcollege.bsky.social, the original drafter of that definition. knightcolumbia.org/content/a-ba...

New paper by @sethlazar.org and Tino Cuéllar of @carnegieendowment.org for @knightcolumbia.org's project on AI & Democratic Freedoms - AI Agents and Democratic Resilience. Short 🧵 below with a few screenshots from the essay to pique your interest: knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a...

The Trumpist majority on SCOTUS, like Trump himself, is spending down a trust fund they did not create, apparently believing it refills automatically. But it doesn’t. The whole system depends on other key institutions treating their rulings as legitimate.

Great op-ed on how Trump's EOs targeting DEI and trans people will limit scientific inquiry and the development of knowledge - ties in nicely with @kendraserra.bsky.social's essay for @knightcolumbia.org's series on federal funding & the 1st Amendment: knightcolumbia.org/blog/facts-a...

Great @eff.org podcast with @randomwalker.bsky.social, touching on his AI as Normal Technology paper w/ @sayash.bsky.social for our @knightcolumbia.org AI & Democratic Freedoms project. Short 🧵 of a few other papers related to this podcast discussion: www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

The first draft of a history of Trump's assault on colleges and universities and particularly on foreign scholars is furnished by the Knight First Amendment Institute.

@knightcolumbia.org has filed an almost-200-page brief describing evidence presented during trial in our AAUP v. Rubio case challenging the Trump admin’s policy of arresting, detaining, and deporting noncitizen faculty & students for their pro-Palestinian advocacy. knightcolumbia.org/content/post...

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 👇

Great piece from @himself.bsky.social about his new paper with @hahrie.bsky.social for our AI & Democratic Freedoms series - link below. www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-ai-dem...

The Columbia settlement is an “astonishing transfer of autonomy and authority to . . . an administration whose disdain for the values of the academy is demonstrated anew every day.” New @knightcolumbia.org analysis of the Columbia settlement, just published. knightcolumbia.org/blog/what-th...

Great explainer from @kjfeng.me about his new paper for our AI & Democratic Freedoms essay series:

LISTEN to today's episode with First Amendment legal scholar @genevievelakier.bsky.social and Wesleyan President Michael Roth discussing the Trump administration’s #jawboning and extortion campaign against U.S. universities. More on the conversation below. ⬇️ podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...

As Trump gets ever more desperate to shut down inconvenient information, the 1917 Espionage Act is one of the most dangerous tools in his arsenal. I'll link in the thread to some academic discussions of the Act and the threat that it poses to press & sources. www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

For reference, Harvard's excellent amended complaint: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us... And the government's cross-motion for SJ, trying to get all this thrown to the Court of Federal Claims: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

On Monday, a judge will consider motions for summary judgment in Harvard v. HHS, challenging the admin's freezes of billions in federal grants. Here's @knightcolumbia.org's series on fed funding and the First Am, w/ posts from brilliant experts on these questions knightcolumbia.org/research/fed...

Good news. @knightcolumbia.org wins their appeal to have the El Faro journalists' lawsuit against NSO Group remanded to the court for re-consideration after it was thrown out for jurisdictional reasons. Here's our @citizenlab.ca report that kicked it all off 👇 citizenlab.ca/2022/01/proj...

Good report about yesterday’s opening session in @aaup.org v Rubio, our challenge to the deportation of students engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy. Could not be prouder of my @knightcolumbia.org colleagues or more grateful to our co-counsel at Sher Tremonte. www.mercurynews.com/2025/07/07/i...

New essay by @sachaltay.bsky.social & @felixsimon.bsky.social in @knightcolumbia.org's AI & Democratic Freedoms series, on how we should think about (and do research on) generative AI's impact on elections. Short 🧵 on this important piece: knightcolumbia.org/content/dont...

Day 1 of the AAUP v. Rubio trial will wrap shortly. Join a livestream of our press conference and rally at 1:30pm ET for a recap. You'll also hear from @aaup.org reps about the effects of Trump admin’s ideological deportation policy on students and faculty nationwide. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9VB...

A response from me and several Columbia Law colleagues to Judge Vyskocil’s opinion last week denying standing to AAUP and AFT in their challenge to government funding suspensions to Columbia. Consider us dubious, to say the least. knightcolumbia.org/blog/a-title...

New by @genevievelakier.bsky.social for our @knightcolumbia.org federal funding series: How Trump's use of funding conditions & freezes to chill speech exposes the weaknesses in 1A doctrinal distinctions between public and private realms of constitutional action: knightcolumbia.org/blog/the-tru...

New from @kendraserra.bsky.social for our @knightcolumbia.org series on federal funding and the First Amendment: A look at how the Trump EO banning "gender ideology" skews the scientific process and distorts our collective knowledge about the world: knightcolumbia.org/blog/facts-a...

UPDATE: The Los Angeles Press Club has filed suit against the city of Los Angeles and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell in the Central District of California's federal courts over its actions toward journalists covering anti-ICE protests in recent days. /more

Invaluable work showing that people are paying attention and mobilizing all across the country, in even larger numbers than 2017. And protests have been "overwhelmingly peaceful," contrary to some officials' efforts to characterize them as disorderly/violent. See you out there on Saturday.

@kateruane.bsky.social outlines multiple avenues for Congress to exert its authority over the funding process to prevent executive abuse in a new blog post for our federal funding & 1A series. Read it here: knightcolumbia.org/blog/congres...

"That’s why I keep documenting corruption and abuse, the erosion of norms, and each step away from democracy. Not because I expect immediate consequences, but because documenting the truth will matter later even if it doesn’t seem to matter now." @molly.wiki www.citationneeded.news/it-matters-i...

They aren't even pretending anymore that they're responding to rioting or lawlessness. They're calling out the military and threatening large-scale violence against people engaged in lawful protest *because they're engaged in lawful protest*.

SF AIDS Foundation (and other orgs) got a preliminary injunction against the ban on funding for "gender ideology", with the judge finding likelihood of success on the merits of their First Amendment argument. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

We've gotten so used to seeing pictures of heavily policed protest crowds that sometimes we forget police's primary job at a protest is supposed to be ensuring that people can exercise their First Amendment protected rights, not shutting the protest down as quickly as possible.

The great @olatij.bsky.social writes for our @knightcolumbia.org series on federal funding & the First Am, about how SFFA and Title VI are being stretched far beyond their intended reach in service of Trump’s attacks on universities.

Read Sam's great piece and other contributions to this @knightcolumbia.org series here: knightcolumbia.org/research/fed...

New post in our @knightcolumbia.org series on federal funding & the First Am by Frederick Schaffer, about the funding of universities and how academic freedom protections offer another pathway for contesting the current freezes: knightcolumbia.org/blog/speech-...

First post in a new @knightcolumbia.org project on federal funding & the First Amendment is up, by @dorfonlaw.bsky.social: knightcolumbia.org/blog/conditi...

Just published a new @knightcolumbia.org essay by @sethlazar.org: Anticipatory AI Ethics, part of our AI & Democratic Freedoms project. knightcolumbia.org/content/anti...

Over the past 24 hours, a judge in New Jersey held that he has jurisdiction to consider Mahmoud Khalil's First Amendment challenge; a judge in Vermont ordered ICE to free Mohsin Mahdawi; and a judge in Boston green-lighted AAUP and MESA's challenge to the broader ideological deportation policy.

Federal court says First Amendment bars government from arresting, deporting foreign students on basis of pro-Palestine advocacy. Important ruling from Judge Young just now in case brought by @aaup.bsky.social @mesa1966.bsky.social @knightcolumbia.org. knightcolumbia.org/content/fede...

My @knightcolumbia.org colleague Ramya Krishnan will be in court in Boston this Wednesday arguing on behalf of @aaup.bsky.social & @mesa1966.bsky.social in their challenge to the Trump admin's ideological-deportation policy. This is the case: knightcolumbia.org/cases/aaup-v...

Just published - Experimental Publics: Democracy and the Role of Publics in GenAI Evaluation, by Jacob Metcalf, Ranjit Singh, and @borhane.bsky.social, the second essay written for our AI & Democratic Freedoms symposium (happening tomorrow and Friday!) knightcolumbia.org/content/expe...

Happening this Thursday and Friday! Our symposium has a great lineup of panels about AI & democracy 👇 and keynote addresses by Ben Buchanan @johnshopkinssais.bsky.social & @chenoweth.bsky.social. Particularly looking forward to talking with Erica Chenoweth after the weekend's nationwide protests!

Just published the first essay (of 20!) written for our @knightcolumbia.org AI & Democratic Freedoms symposium - What Will Remain for People to Do?, by Daniel Susskind of @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social and @ox.ac.uk. knightcolumbia.org/content/what...

I wrote about the surreal experience of teaching the First Amendment right now on a green card, teaching lofty doctrine while the government is rounding up people like me for things they say www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

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

Terrific piece by Deborah Pearlstein on the pressing need for lawyers, and for members of civil society more broadly, to stand together in the face of authoritarian attacks.

So proud of my @knightcolumbia.org colleagues.