The war in Israel and Gaza has unleashed a wave of censorship and suppression in the United States—including by government agencies and officials, university administrators, private companies, and cultural institutions. In season two of “Views on First: War & Speech,” host Jameel Jaffer talks to scholars, writers, advocates, and others about whether our system of free speech is failing us, and, if it is, why that’s so. How repressive is the climate we’re living in, really? Are there historical precedents for it? And how might the events unfolding now shift free speech culture and the boundaries of the First Amendment?
Episode 6 of “Views on First: War & Speech” is a 2024 Signal Awards Gold Medal winner.
Read more about this season here.
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Episode One: How Repressive Is this Moment, Really?
Jameel Jaffer talks with Genevieve Lakier, professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School and one of the country’s leading theorists of free speech, about the climate for speech in the United States relating to the war in Israel and Gaza. How repressive is this moment, really? Is the First Amendment failing us? And what imprint will the events unfolding now leave on free speech law and culture?
Further Reading
Episode Two: Campus Speech in the Shadow of the War
Jameel Jaffer talks with Eugene Volokh, distinguished professor of law at UCLA and soon-to-be senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, about free speech on campus in the shadow of the war in Israel and Gaza. They discuss whether administrators should ban what some students describe as calls for genocide and consider what can be done to protect the space for dissent.
Further Reading
Episode Three: A Climate of Repression and Fear
Radhika Sainath, senior staff attorney at Palestine Legal, talks with Jameel Jaffer about the climate for speech supportive of Palestinians, defining discrimination, and the “Palestine Exception” to the First Amendment.
Episode Four: Campus Speech, Double Standards, and Discrimination
Jameel Jaffer returns to the issue of free speech on campus with Will Creeley, legal director at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). They talk about “cancellations” before and after October 7, the difference between free speech law and free speech culture, and the free speech implications of Title VI, the law that requires universities to take action against discriminatory harassment.
Further Reading
Episode Five: The War Comes for Academic Freedom
Jameel Jaffer returns to the issue of free speech on campus with Jeannie Suk Gersen, professor of law at Harvard, contributing writer to The New Yorker, founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance, and co-president of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard. They talk about the challenges facing academic freedom on college campuses since October 7th.
Episode Six: The Crisis at Columbia
Jelani Cobb, dean of Columbia’s Journalism School, and Isabella Ramírez, editor in chief of the Columbia Daily Spectator, talk with Jameel Jaffer about the crisis at Columbia, and about the challenges of reporting on it.
Further Reading/Listening
Streams of WKCR coverage from April 30th:
Articles on work of student journalists at WKCR:
Columbia Spectator articles covering campus life:
Episode Seven: The War and the Platforms
Deborah Brown of Human Rights Watch and Evelyn Douek of Stanford Law talk with Jameel Jaffer about the role that social media platforms are playing in shaping, suppressing, and distorting public discourse about the war.
Further Reading
Episode Eight: Anti-Discrimination Law and the Protests on Campus
Cornell Law School’s Michael Dorf talks with Jameel Jaffer about how federal anti-discrimination law is shaping universities’ responses to pro-Palestinian protests on campus, and about the tensions between anti-discrimination law and the First Amendment.
Further Reading
- Federal Antidiscrimination Law Does Not Require Campus Crackdowns, Michael C. Dorf, Justia
- Seeing the University More Clearly, David Pozen, Balkinization
- Harassment Law and Free Speech Doctrine, Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law Review
Episode Nine: The University’s Role in Political and Social Action
Harvard Law School’s Noah Feldman talks with Jameel Jaffer about whether and when universities should issue statements about social and political issues, and about the pros and cons of institutional neutrality.
Further reading
Season Credits
Producer: Ann Marie Awad, Candace White
Host: Jameel Jaffer
Executive Producer: Candace White
Production assistant, audio editor, and fact checker: Isabel Adler
Researcher, writer, and fact checker: Hannah Vester
Sound design and audio post-production services: Room 3
Artwork: Astrid Da Silva