So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast

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Ep. 28 'Sex and the Constitution' with professor Geoffrey R. Stone Apr 20, 2017

Show notes

Sex and the Constitution are not two topics often thought of together.

But University of Chicago Law School professor Geoffrey R. Stone seeks to change that with the publication of "Sex and the Constitution: Sex, Religion, and Law from America's Origins to the Twenty-First Century."

The newly released, 700-page book is 10 years in the making. Stone's comprehensive review extends all the way back to the ancient Greeks and Romans to explain how sex came to be legislated in America.

Professor Stone is the guest on today's episode of So to Speak. Fittingly, we met in New York City to discuss the portions of "Sex and the Constitution" dealing with the regulation of sexual expression. It was, after all, in New York City where the YMCA and Anthony Comstock began their campaigns in the 1800s to root out what they deemed obscene, sexually explicit material.

During our conversation, Stone explains how "obscenity" came to be regulated in America and why its legal definition constantly shifts. We also explore other First Amendment issues surrounding sexual expression, including nude dancing and the public funding of art with sexual themes.

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Ep. 27 The 'heckler's veto' strikes Heather Mac Donald Apr 17, 2017

Show notes

On April 6, Manhattan Institute Fellow Heather Mac Donald was standing in Claremont McKenna College's Athenaeum preparing to give a lecture to an empty room.

An empty room was not what Mac Donald expected when she traveled to California from her New York City home to deliver a lecture on her new book, "The War On Cops." But outside the auditorium, close to 300 people had surrounded the Athenaeum, preventing prospective audience members from entering. They were protesting Mac Donald's defense of law enforcement policing tactics and her criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Ultimately, the college livestreamed Mac Donald's talk to those who could not attend in person. But the talk was cut short during the question and answer period after police and administrators determined that it was unsafe for her to remain in the building. The crowd was allegedly out of control, and Mac Donald could hear banging on the windows. Her exit through the kitchen of the Athenaeum into an unmarked Claremont Police Department van was coordinated by walkie-talkie.

Heather Mac Donald is our guest on today's "extra" edition of "So to Speak." Mac Donald is the latest speaker on campus to fall victim to the "heckler's veto." During our conversation, I ask Mac Donald what she was thinking as she heard the crowd outside banging on the Athenaeum's windows. I also asked her what it says about the environment for free inquiry on campus that a scholar must escape under police protection through the kitchen of a campus building for presenting nothing more than an argument?

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Ep. 26 Putting money where your mouth is: campaign finance and free speech Apr 06, 2017

Show notes

From Buckley v. Valeo (1976) to Citizens United v. FEC (2010), legal disputes over the constitutionality of campaign finance laws have captured the general public's attention for decades.

At the heart of the debate is a question of whether money donated to political candidates or spent influencing elections is speech protected by the First Amendment. And, if it is, are there countervailing interests outweighing those core First Amendment interests?

Even within the free speech community, the debate can be contentious. But for our guest on today's episode of So to Speak, the issue is straightforward: money spent in support of a political message is speech.

Sam Gedge is an attorney with the Institute for Justice, a national public-interest law firm that puts its money where its mouth is, regularly challenging campaign finance restrictions in court.

In this podcast, Gedge presents the basics of campaign finance regulation and makes his case for why money spent on politics deserves full First Amendment protection.

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Ep. 25 Bob Corn-Revere on censorship: the 'bastard child of technology' Mar 23, 2017

Show notes

New technologies and the censorship instinct seem to go hand-in-hand. From the first days of the printing press, to the rise of radio and the telephone, to the advent of the internet, innovations in mass communication are often followed by a fear of what will happen if these novelties are left unrestricted — or uncensored.

On today's episode of So to Speak, we speak with former Federal Communications Commission chief counsel and current Davis Wright Tremaine partner Bob Corn-Revere about what it means for censorship to be the "bastard child of technology."

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Ep. 24 How Daryl Davis, a black man, defeats the KKK w/ dialogue Mar 09, 2017

Show notes

Daryl Davis, a 58-year-old black man, has a question: "How can you hate me if you don't even know me?"

For nearly three decades, Davis has been interviewing members of the Ku Klux Klan to find an answer to that question. However, in the course of his research, he found something he didn't expect to find: friendship.

You see, while Davis was actively learning about the Klan members, they were passively learning about him, seeing that their prejudices were unfounded and becoming his friend. Today, Davis has dozens of Klan robes at his home that were given to him by former Klan members who shed their racist beliefs after meeting him.

On today's episode of "So To Speak," we travel to Maryland to meet Davis and explore how open dialogue and debate have shown him a path toward a tolerant, multicultural future.

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Ep. 23 Rob Corry, 'speech code slayer' Feb 23, 2017

Show notes

In 1994, law student Rob Corry joined with eight other students to file a legal challenge to a Stanford University speech code. It was the first-ever lawsuit filed under California's recently-enacted "Leonard Law," which applies First Amendment protections to private, non-sectarian colleges in the state of California (like Stanford), and which the students argued made Stanford's restrictions on free speech unlawful.

Winning wasn't going to be easy: Corry would be representing himself and his co-plaintiffs against one of America's richest and most powerful research universities.

On Feb. 27, 1995—22 years ago this month—a California state court judge sided with Corry and struck down Stanford's speech code as an impermissible content-based restriction on expression. The victory earned Corry the title of "speech code slayer" in a campus newspaper.

Today, on "So to Speak," we talk with Corry of Corry v. Stanford about the seminal lawsuit, how he overcame the challenges of representing himself in court, and why other students should feel emboldened by his victory to challenge their colleges' speech codes.

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Ep. 22 Flemming Rose, Editor of 'the Muhammad Cartoons' Feb 09, 2017

Show notes

Flemming Rose didn't set out to put himself at the center of one of the biggest free speech controversies in recent memory, but 12 years ago he found himself in just that position.

In 2005, Rose commissioned and published what are now widely known as "the Muhammad cartoons."

Protests against the cartoons resulted in an estimated 200 reported deaths; there were attacks on the offices of Rose's employer, the Danish newspaper 'Jyllands-Posten'; and Rose was placed on Al-Qaeda's hit list. To this day, he must be accompanied by a security detail when he appears in public.

Flemming Rose is our guest on today's episode of "So to Speak." During the show, we discuss the cartoon controversy and how his thoughts on free speech are informed by his background as a western journalist in the Soviet Union.

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Ep. 21 The 'Turkey Purge' w/ Prof. Beth Baron Jan 27, 2017

Show notes

We continue our conversation about the Turkish government's crackdown on civil society with Middle East Studies Association (MESA) President and City University of New York Professor Beth Baron.

MESA has sounded the alarm bells about the threat to academic freedom posed by the Turkish government. In August 2016, they sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry regarding persecutions and prosecutions of scholars and academics within Turkey.

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Ep. 20 The 'Turkey Purge' w/ Mahir Zeynalov Jan 26, 2017

Show notes

If you care about free expression, you should care about what's happening in Turkey.

Since a failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt against Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish government has intensified the use of emergency decrees and laws against terrorist propaganda and insulting the president to purge perceived dissenters within civil society.

On today's episode, we are joined by journalist Mahir Zeynalov. Mahir writes for "The Huffington Post" and "Al Arabiya," and was deported from Turkey in 2014 for criticism of the government. He faces arrest if he ever returns.

During the show, we speak with Zeynalov about the mind-boggling number of journalists, academics, and civil servants purged from Turkish civil society, what the international community can do to help, and the confusing populist support that Erdogan has within Turkey.

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Ep. 19 Ken White of 'Popehat' Talks Nat Hentoff, Worst Censors of 2016 Jan 12, 2017

Show notes

Ken White has made a name for himself in First Amendment circles for his particularly astute and often comical commentary on free speech issues for the popular "law, liberty, and leisure" blog 'Popehat.'

An attorney by day, Ken likes to use his considerable legal chops—he's a 1994 graduate of Harvard Law School—to take a rhetorical axe to what he sees as facile arguments in favor of censorship.

Ken is our guest on today's episode of "So to Speak." We talk with him about his list of the worst censors of 2016 and spend some time remembering the life of a giant in the free speech world, Nat Hentoff, who passed away this past weekend. Ken also explains how he successfully uses the "Popehat Signal" to rally attorneys to provide pro bono assistance to people wrapped up in free speech legal battles.

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