My thoughts for @knightcolumbia.org on what to do about the private as well as gov authoritarianism that helps explain why, even tho they are not broadly popular, the admin's efforts at ideological control have often been so successful...

For our Reconstructing Free Expression series, @genevievelakier.bsky.social looks at why the First Amendment fails to fulfill its anti-authoritarian role, and what doctrinal changes can be made to facilitate the creation of a more anti-authoritarian public sphere. knightcolumbia.org/blog/the-ant...

Lifting up a rich history of dissent from orthodoxy and perseverance in the face of oppression is a deep form of patriotism. Broadcasters should respond accordingly.

Oh yeah, what a great way to commemorate -- nothing more American than the government telling you what to broadcast www.npr.org/2026/02/21/n...

I will be testifying at this panel also, along with @beidelson.bsky.social and Eugene Volokh. it should be interesting bc panelists are very far apart: Did the fed gov do too little to repress antisemitic student speech on campus after Oct 2023? or did it instead flagrantly violate 1A rights?

I reviewed Prof. Genevieve Lakier @genevievelakier.bsky.social's forthcoming Chicago Law Rev @uchilrev.bsky.social article on Jawboning for Jotwell! @jotwell.bsky.social Check out my review: conlaw.jotwell.com/throwing-the... - and, more importantly! - her article: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

surprising amount of chilling of dissent in this new era of tech companies and the government collaborating to stand up for free speech etc

I wrote about Trump’s ideological deportation policies and their implications for free speech, including on university campuses. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

The Oversight Board should absolutely not be a model for AI governance. Incredible it's still earning the company legitimacy dividends 70 pages on why here (& it has only gotten worse since I wrote this): papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/o...

Extraordinary amount of time, energy and resources being devoted to chilling any and all dissent

Mark Zuckerberg's Return to his Roots around Free Expression continues www.wired.com/story/meta-i...

This is a great paper. SCOTUS was not just wrong to uphold the TikTok ban but deeply, consequentially, historically wrong. Holmes and Brandeis are turning in their graves.

Apropos of the TikTok news last week, I have a piece coming out abt how the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the ban-or-sale law belongs in the First Amendment anticanon. It's not just wrong, but so wrong we should hold it up as an exceptional symbol of wrongness. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

One problem with advocating for censoring unwanted political content on TikTok is that you might get your way

Struck by how it is true both that the First Amendment is under perhaps unprecedented attack, while also being more invaluable than ever.

TikTok coverage seems to have become somewhat numb to this, but worth remembering that the President simply refusing to enforce a *crystal-clear* law of Congress for over a year to instead broker a deal on his own terms, & Congress just shrugging, is very much not how this was supposed to work

SCOTUS enabled this. The First Amendment was intended to prevent this outcome by heading off its beginning. Its decision upholding the TikTok ban looks worse today than ever www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Almost as if allowing the government to broker the terms for the continued operation of a major communications platform is a bad idea and a democratic threat and something there should be a constitutional bar against www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/t...

“The effect of the court’s ruling has been to give our own government enormous power over the policies of a platform used by millions of Americans every day – a result that is an affront to the first amendment and a national security risk in its own right” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The import of this ruling: Foreign citizens in the United States—including green card holders—can be arrested for political speech and imprisoned for months or even years before being given a meaningful opportunity to challenge the constitutionality of their arrest and imprisonment.

SCOTUS maybe can't be blamed for not predicting exactly this, but the First Amendment was intended to prevent this outcome by heading off its beginning. Its decision upholding the TikTok ban looks worse today than ever -- as @jameeljaffer.bsky.social & I wrote: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"The embarrassing, scandalous coda to the Supreme Court's TikTok ruling"--from @evelyndouek.bsky.social and me in @us.theguardian.com. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Supreme Court's TikTok decision was wrong, and developments since its issuance have only underscored how wrong it was. From @evelyndouek.bsky.social & me in @us.theguardian.com. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The fact that TikTok remains available “makes a mockery” of the government’s earlier national security claims that the platform was “an urgent national security risk – and of the court that deferred to those claims,” @evelyndouek.bsky.social and @jameeljaffer.bsky.social write in @theguardian.com.

What has happened since the Court upheld the TikTok ban makes a mockery of the gvt’s claims that TikTok was an urgent national security risk—and of the court that deferred to those claims Wrote w @jameeljaffer.bsky.social abt why TikTok should haunt the Court www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The "embarrassing, scandalous coda" of the Supreme Court's TikTok decision--new from @evelyndouek.bsky.social and me. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The list of views for which you can lose your visa continues to expand, which is both a completely unexpected development and very free speechy zeteo.com/p/trump-revo...

the fact that this is the key quote that the Meta Oversight Board chose to end its Special Edition Newsletter marking 5 years I think says it all

What are chilling effects, and why is First Amendment law concerned with them?📍NEXT MONDAY at 12:30pm ET: Join our online webinar on chilling effects with @carriedecell.bsky.social, @evelyndouek.bsky.social, @stacylivingston.bsky.social & Jonathon Penney. RSVP: knightcolumbia.org/events/litig...

Can vouch for the fact that it is excellent and students love it

Want to learn more about chilling effects and why they matter to the First Amendment? Join our webinar with litigators and experts on Monday, Nov. 17, including @carriedecell.bsky.social @evelyndouek.bsky.social @penney.bsky.social @stacylivingston.bsky.social: knightcolumbia.org/events/litig...

every day thumbing their nose at the first amendment's promise of an uninhibited, robust, and wide-open public sphere www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The primary and most pervasive form of speech suppression that this Administration employs is chill; it's pervasive but much harder to quantify than outright censorship. But stories like this must be happening everywhere. www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Vaguely remember there being some sort of concern about a government leveraging control over TikTok to extract user data and manipulate content, but anyway I am sure this is fine www.forbes.com/sites/emilyb...

I wrote about an under-appreciated aspect of AAUP v. Rubio. It is the first case of the Trump Era to explicitly identify and reject the primary and most pernicious form of speech suppression employed by this Administration: Chill. balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/aaup...

I wrote about an under-appreciated aspect of AAUP v. Rubio. It is the first case of the Trump Era to explicitly identify and reject the primary and most pernicious form of speech suppression employed by this Administration: Chill. balkin.blogspot.com/2025/10/aaup...

The Trump Administration’s “Compact of Excellence” for Universities is... far from excellent! Indeed, it’s unconstitutional. In this post, let me count the ways. blog.dividedargument.com/p/the-uncons...

Nothing says "free speech" like "you shall abstain from speech relating to societal and political events"

Judge Young: "The First Amendment does not draw President Trump’s invidious distinction and it is not to be found in our history or jurisprudence." An extraordinary, historic victory for democratic freedom. knightcolumbia.org/content/in-l...

This non-citizen is still trying to find the right words about this, but it's nice to know that when I do at least one judge (and a whole bunch of passionate and amazing lawyers) agrees those words are protected

I talked with Jeffrey Rosen and Eugene Volokh about the law of jawboning, Brendan Carr's threats against ABC, the Trump admin's threats against universities, and the deep problems created by a public sphere in which the gov pulls so many purse strings. open.spotify.com/episode/1sZo...

Very cool and very free speechy, no notes

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...

Genevieve Lakier is who everyone should be reading on the risks of government jawboning in the Jimmy Kimmel case. @genevievelakier.bsky.social

The project of “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” (Exec. Order No. 14,149) sure does involve a lot of speech chilling and federal censorship

"the proudest boast of our free speech jurisprudence is that we protect the freedom to express 'the thought that we hate.'" -- noted leftist Justice Alito

the president and a foreign adversary opaquely deciding the terms of the continued operation of one of the most powerful speech platforms in the country, just like the framers intended www.theverge.com/news/778087/...

public sphere so robust, uninhibited and wide-open that i'm hesitant to even be explicit about the extraordinary levels of ambient chill we are seeing

more regulation kayfabe www.politico.com/news/2025/09...