Firm News

On Friday, January 19, 2018, Michael A. Kahn served as a panelist at the Washington University School of Law’s the Roberts Court’s First Amendment Symposium. The symposium, presented by the Washington University Law Review, brings together some of the nation’s preeminent professors, legal scholars, and other academics to reflect on ideas from  Professor Gregory Magarian’s new book Managed Speech: The Roberts Court’s First Amendment.

Roberts Court’s First Amendment Symposium

Panel Description:

Michael participated in the panel entitled, “Essential Preconditions for Online Speech.”The panel focused on a form of speech regulation beyond the scope of the First Amendment, which addresses only government regulation of speech. Joining Michael on the panel were three noted First Amendment scholars: Professors Lee Epstein and Neil Richards of Washington University and Danielle Citron, Professor of Law at the University of Maryland.

About the Symposium

In Managed Speech: The Roberts Court’s First Amendment, Professor Magarian explores and critiques how the present U.S. Supreme Court has reshaped, and degraded, the law of expressive freedom. The Roberts Court’s free speech decisions, Professor Magarian argues, embody a version of expressive freedom he calls “managed speech.” Managed speech empowers stable, responsible institutions, both government and private, to manage public discussion; disfavors First Amendment claims from social and political outsiders; and, above all, promotes social and political stability. Professor Magarian proposes a theoretical alternative to managed speech, one that would aim to increase the range of ideas and voices in public discussion: dynamic diversity. A First Amendment doctrine based on dynamic diversity would prioritize political dissent and the rights of journalists, allow for reasonable regulations of money in politics, and work to broaden opportunities for speakers to be heard.

This symposium will be memorialized in Volume 95, Issue 6 of the Washington University Law Review. For additional information about the Symposium, please visit the event page.