On October 18, 2024, the Knight Institute will host a symposium to explore the changing role of the international border as a venue, justification, or pretext for censorship or surveillance, and as an obstacle to censorship and persecution by foreign governments. The symposium, Regardless of Frontiers: The First Amendment and the Exchange of Ideas Across Borders, will take place at Columbia University and online.

Participants in the symposium include legal scholars, immigration attorneys, historians, and technologists. Today, we are excited to announce that the symposium will feature new scholarship on the scope of First Amendment rights of non-citizens, foreign speech and listeners’ rights, and surveillance and intimidation of activists, including:

Siena Anstis and Ron Deibert (Citizen Lab) will examine the growing phenomenon of digital transnational repression, in which dissidents in exile or in the diaspora are targeted by their country of origin with online harassment, disinformation campaigns, or spyware. Their essay will discuss findings from interviews conducted with over 100 human rights defenders, journalists, and other members of civil society living in the diaspora or in exile who believe they were targeted by their country of origin, as well as how host states–such as the United States–have and should be responding to the practice of (digital) transnational repression.

Chinmayi Arun (Yale Information Society Project) will build on Justice Brennan’s concurrence in Lamont v. Postmaster General to argue that the First Amendment protects listeners’ rights when the state restricts their access to foreign-owned digital platforms and AI models. Arun stresses the democratic and cultural value of foreign speech and ideas, outlining the pitfalls of restricting access to foreign platforms for national security purposes. Using First Amendment case law and theory, Arun will offer a new framework for the right to receive information in an era of foreign-owned platforms, technology, and generative AI models.

Noah Chauvin (Widener University) will examine the relationship between the First Amendment and concerns of foreign influence in American politics. Concerns around foreign nations’ efforts to influence domestic elections have long been used by governments to justify domestic surveillance and censorship. Critics of these practices, however, have largely focused on the efficacy of foreign interference. Chauvin argues that we must instead focus on the First Amendment values at stake–namely, the right of the people to agency and self-determination. As such, regardless of whether foreign influence campaigns are effective, the First Amendment should not tolerate domestic censorship and surveillance justified in the name of combating foreign influence.

Alina Das (NYU Law) will explore the doctrinal and structural challenges to protecting the First Amendment rights of immigrants. Specifically, Das will examine government efforts to punish U.S.-based immigrants rights’ activists for engaging in First Amendment-protected activities and the range of judicial responses. Das will build on previous work criticizing federal immigration officials’ retaliation against activists during the Trump and Biden administrations to develop a broader critique of the various legal and administrative barriers to protecting immigrants’ First Amendment rights.    

Evelyn Douek (Stanford Law School) will consider the contemporary implications of the Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project decision—which upheld a law that criminalized the provision of expert advice to designated foreign terrorist organizations. As Douek argues, Holder delineated two constitutionally distinct spheres of discourse: foreign and domestic. But in the digital age, speech to and from foreign sources plainly has a profound impact on domestic public discourse. Holder casts a long shadow over online speech and shapes how platforms moderate foreign content. This conversation is particularly relevant today, as illustrated by the tensions around online content from and about Palestine amidst Israel’s war in Gaza.

Sam Lebovic (George Mason University) will explore how U.S. citizens have sought to enforce their rights to receive and gather information from abroad in the face of repressive political climates. Through a legal history of a series of landmark First Amendment cases, Lebovic will argue that the right to know—which would strengthen democracy, enhance the liberal international order, and foster a culture of accountability—should not be eclipsed by national security concerns and foreign policy programs aiming to control the information flow across the border.

Jaya Ramji-Nogales (Temple Law School) and Nicole Ramos (Al Otro Lado) will catalogue the Trump administration’s targeting of activists, journalists, and lawyers working with migrants at the border and discuss ongoing harassment faced by border activists under the Biden administration. Their essay will highlight the previously underexplored harms to non-citizens, and assess available legal strategies to challenge the surveillance of activists, lawyers, and journalists working with migrants at the southwest border.

Xiangnong (George) Wang (Knight First Amendment Institute) will tell the story of Lamont v. Postmaster General, the underappreciated case which established that the First Amendment protects the right of listeners to receive information and ideas from abroad, even when that information is deemed dangerous by the government. Lamont has enduring significance in the digital age, especially as governments–including in the United States–increasingly seek to restrict their citizens’ access to foreign information and ideas, all in the name of national security.  By delving into the historical context surrounding Lamont, this essay re-examines the democratic principles that animate Lamont  and explains why the decision remains so important today.

“Regardless of Frontiers” will also feature a photo exhibition entitled “Infrastructures of Control,” by Colter Thomas and Dugan Meyer. Through a series of photographs, the exhibit aims to create a visual archive of security and surveillance infrastructure in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. An opening reception will be held on the evening of October 17 at Columbia University.

Registration is now open for “Regardless of Frontiers: The First Amendment and the Exchange of Ideas Across Borders.” RSVP here.