Research is surprisingly slim on whether free expression helps or harms the cause of social progress. Does it entrench an unjust status quo (as some movements on campus claim), or does it provide critical support for groups wishing to advance and change culture? Voices for Liberty seeks to answer these questions. From senior scholars to exciting new thinkers, we present cutting-edge research on the role freedom of speech plays in advancing civil rights movements.
Our authors look to the past, present and future from a range of disciplines and areas of expertise. Read on, and click links to access full papers and author bios.
WORKING AND PUBLISHED PAPERS
PAPER: “First Amendment Rights on Trial: A Critique of the Time, Place, and Manner Doctrine”
PUBLISHED: SSRN (October 2023); Oklahoma Law Review (forthcoming)
AUTHOR: Alec Greven, J.D. Candidate at the University of Chicago Law School
ABSTRACT: This article argues that the current First Amendment time, place, and manner doctrine needs to be reformed because it grants excessive deference to government authorities to regulate speech they disfavor by modifying the channels in which speech can be presented, burdening speech in places disproportionately used by certain social groups, and selectively enforcing these regulations. Several solutions are proposed to ensure a robust right to assemble and enable groups to speak freely and drive social progress.
*Watch the panel discussion about this paper from our 2023 symposium, featuring Alec Greven, Emerson Sykes, and Timothy Zick, with Christopher Newman moderating.
PAPER: “Free Speech for All or None: Mobs, Abolitionists, and Democrats and the Public Constitutional Fights over the First Amendment During the American Civil War”
PUBLISHED: SSRN (October 2023)
AUTHOR: Nicholas Mosvick, Buckley Legacy Project Manager at the National Review Institute
ABSTRACT: This paper discusses the issues of free speech in the Civil War North by examination of partisan newspapers and other popular accounts in order to understand the popular constitutional discourse around the First Amendment during the war. The paper considers many episodes which resulted in public constitutional discourse, including riots, private and military attacks upon newspaper presses, and the arrest and military trial of one of President Abraham Lincoln’s greatest critics, Ohio Congressman Clement Vallandigham.
*Watch the panel discussion about this paper from our 2023 symposium, featuring Nicholas Mosvick, Kathleen M. Brown, and Mark Graber, with Debi Ghate moderating.
PAPER: “Free Speech Culture as an Anticipatory ‘Reasonable Accommodation’ for People with Psycho-social Disabilities and Neurodiverse People”
PUBLISHED: SSRN (October 2023)
AUTHOR: Reuben Kirkham, Lecturer, Monash University & Free Speech Union of Australia
ABSTRACT: This paper begins a conversation about the relationship between disability rights and free speech. Drawing upon the circumstances of a people with a range of psychosocial disabilities and neurodiverse conditions, it explores how a lack of a free speech culture amounts to a failure to make reasonable accommodations for a broad range of disabled people.
*Watch the panel discussion about this paper from our 2023 symposium, featuring Reuben Kirkham, Robert Dinerstein, and Doron Dorfman, with JoAnn Koob moderating.
PAPER: “Section 230 as Civil Rights Statute”**
PUBLISHED: SSRN (September 2023); Cincinnati Law Review
AUTHOR: Enrique Armijo, Professor of Law at the Elon University School of Law
ABSTRACT: Many of our most pressing discussions about justice, progress, and civil rights have moved online. But the convergence of mobility, connectivity, and technology is not the only reason why. Thanks to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act’s immunity for online platforms, websites, and their hosts, speakers can engage in speech about protest, equality, and dissent without fear of collateral censorship from governments, authorities, and others in power who hope to silence them.
*Watch the panel discussion about this paper from our 2023 symposium, featuring Enrique Armijo, Eugene Volokh, and Kate Ruane, with David E. Bernstein moderating.
**Watch our co-sponsored webinar with FIRE on this paper, Webinar: Free Speech, Civil Rights, and the Liability of Social Media Companies.
PAPERS CURRENTLY UNDER DEVELOPMENT
PAPER: “Religious Minorities and Secular Rights”
AUTHOR: Josh McDaniel, Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
PAPER: “Myra Bradwell and the Chicago Legal News: speech as a prerequisite to equal rights”
AUTHOR: Anastasia P. Boden, Director, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute
PAPER: “The Black-Controlled Town of Mound Bayou As A Bridgehead for Free Speech in Jim Crow Mississippi”
AUTHOR: David T. Beito, Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama
PAPER: “Free Speech, Fighting Faiths, and ‘Nones’: How Robust Free Speech Protections Helped Atheists, Humanists, and Freethinkers to Become Visible Participants in American Culture”
AUTHOR: Katie McKerall, Senior Staff Attorney, American Humanist Association
PAPER: “The Jewish Dilemma in Supporting Free Speech and Countering Antisemitism on American College Campuses”
AUTHOR: David L. Bernstein, Founder, Jewish Institute for Liberal Values
PAPER: “Does Free Speech Promote Racial Tolerance Across Countries?”
AUTHOR: Claudia Williamson Kramer, Probasco Chair of Free Enterprise, UTC Gary W. Rollins College of Busines