Free Speech Unmuted

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer tackle one of the strangest First Amendment controversies imaginable: whether sending a sexually explicit image of Shrek to a politician can constitute criminal harassment. Using an Ohio case involving a blogger and a state senator as their starting point, they explore the constitutional boundaries between protected offensive speech and criminally punishable harassm...

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer unpack the complicated and often uncomfortable relationship between free speech and privacy, exploring everything from anonymous political pamphlets and government surveillance to revenge porn, hidden cameras, autobiographies, celebrity likeness rights, wiretap laws, and the constitutional limits of “the right to be left alone.” Along the way, they dive into landmar...

Can you be sued for repeating a rumor—even if you don’t believe it? Is calling someone a “racist” protected speech? In this episode, Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer unpack the hidden rules of defamation law, from libel and slander to viral tweets and billion-dollar verdicts. It’s a deep dive into what you can say, what you can’t, and why the biggest legal battles often turn on the smallest details...

Jane Bambauer and Eugene Volokh analyze the US Supreme Court’s new Chiles v. Salazar decision, which struck down (by an 8-1 vote) a law banning sexual orientation/gender identity conversion therapy, including therapy that consists entirely of speech. The Court held that the First Amendment protects professional-client speech, including counselors’ use of conversion therapy with minor patients when...

Is the FCC about to revive a broad reading of the Equal Time Rule—and should broadcast TV still get “special” First Amendment treatment in 2026? Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer are joined by  Duke Law professor Stuart Benjamin to discuss the constitutional backstory behind the federal broadcasting Equal Time Rule and why broadcast media has long been treated differently from newspapers, cable, and...

When can a public university punish a student for speech that includes violent references, and that frightens some people, but is not a clear threat? Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer unpack two recent court cases, one that upholds such punishment and another that says it violates the First Amendment: Damsky v. University of Florida and Christensen v. Ohio State University. Volokh and Bambauer explo...

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer are joined by press freedom advocate Seth Stern to dissect the federal prosecution of journalist Don Lemon. At issue is whether covering—and allegedly accompanying—a disruptive protest inside a church can make a journalist liable for criminal conspiracy under federal laws that ban disruption of worship services. The conversation probes the uneasy boundary between re...

What kind of year was 2025 for free speech? In this special year-in-review episode of Free Speech Unmuted, hosts Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer break down the biggest legal and political fights shaping speech in America right now. From the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision upholding the TikTok divestment law to a pending case that could redefine how much protection professional “talk therapy” ge...

Can the government regulate social media features because they are “addictive”? Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer talk with  Emory Law professor Matthew Lawrence  about whether features like infinite scroll, personalized feeds, “near-miss” reward patterns, and dopamine-driven engagement tactics are comparable to gambling or even drug addiction — and whether that means the government can step in. The...

What happens when 1970s defamation law collides with the Internet, social media, and AI?  University of Florida Law School legal scholar Lyrissa Lidsky  — who is also a co-reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement (Third) of Torts: Defamation and Privacy — explains how the law of libel and slander is being rewritten for the digital age. Lyrissa, Jane, and Eugene discuss why the old lin...

Ilya Shapiro, Senior Fellow and the Director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute, joins Free Speech Unmuted to discuss his new book Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites . Ilya, Jane, and Eugene discuss the state of American law schools, why many students fear open discussion, and what can be done to improve things. Subscribe for the latest on free speech , censorship, soc...

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer speak with Eric Heinze, professor of law and humanities at Queen Mary University of London, about how the digital age has transformed the meaning and limits of free expression. The discussion ranges from Britain’s recent Lucy Connolly case—involving online incitement and hate speech—to the philosophical and legal contrasts between the American Brandenburg standard a...

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer are joined by Ashutosh Bhagwat (Professor of Law at UC Davis) as they discuss the FCC’s ability to regulate broadcast speech, directly and indirectly. Jimmy Kimmel, the old Fairness Doctrine, Ted Cruz, affiliate/network relations, and more. Recorded on September 22, 2025.  Subscribe for the latest on free speech , censorship, social media, AI, and the evolving role...

FIRE is one of the leading free speech advocacy and litigation groups in the country, and Greg is not only its long-time head but also coauthor of several books, including Coddling of the American Mind (with psychologist Jonathan Haidt) and War on Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail (with law professor and former ACLU President Nadine Strossen). Jane and Eugene talk with Greg...

Hosts and law professors Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer dive into President Trump’s new executive order on flag burning . Is it bold politics or bad law? Or maybe both? They break down what the order really says, how it clashes with First Amendment precedents, and why targeting flag desecration even under otherwise content-neutral laws could violate the First Amendment. Jane and Eugene also discu...

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer dive into the debate about “doxing” — putting someone’s personal info out in public, usually to call them out or put pressure on them. They talk about how the term is defined (or not) in different laws, and how those laws bump up against the First Amendment. They also share real-life examples — from civil rights boycotts to the online outrage over the dentist who sh...

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss the Court’s June 27 decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, which upheld a state law that required pornography sites to “use reasonable age verification methods ... to verify” that their users are adults. Recorded on July 1, 2025. Subscribe for the latest on free speech , censorship, social media, AI and the evolving role of the First Amendment in today...

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss the First Amendment rules pertaining to public school students. The occasion: The Supreme Court just declined to consider a federal appeals court case that led a public school to punish a student for wearing a T-shirt saying “There Are Only Two Genders.” Did the lower court get that right? Recorded on June 3, 2025. 

A mother sues Character. AI, claiming that a conversation between her teenage son and a Character. AI chatbot led him to commit suicide. A conservative activist sues Meta, claiming that its AI-generated false accusations about him. Jane Bambauer and Eugene Volokh analyze these cases, and more broadly, discuss lawsuits against AI companies, and possible First Amendment defenses to those lawsuits. R...

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss the Administration’s freezing of grants to Harvard, and Harvard’s lawsuit challenging the freeze. The Trump Administration has announced that it was freezing grants to Harvard, and demanding that Harvard change many of its policies and practices in order to get back in the Administration’s good graces.  President Trump has also suggested that Harvard might l...

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss President Trump’s Executive Orders that target major law firms (such as WilmerHale and Jenner & Block). The orders target the firms for retaliation based largely on their past support of various left-wing legal causes. Do those Orders violate the firms’ (and their clients’) Free Speech Clause or Petition Clause rights? Might they also violate the Fifth A...

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss the First Amendment and immigration law. Recorded on March 12, 2025.

Does the Free Press Clause provide extra rights to the institutional press, or instead protect all speakers’ equal rights to use the printing press and its technological heirs? Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss this and more with legendary First Amendment litigator Floyd Abrams. Download the 2025 Stanford Emerging Technology Review here: https://stanford.io/4bilFg0   Recorded on February 21,...

​The Constitution generally covers only government action; if a private university expels students for their speech, or a private shopping mall forbids leafletting, or a private employer fires an employee for backing some candidate, that doesn’t violate the First Amendment. But state laws in roughly half the states do limit some such private restrictions on speech and political activity, especiall...

Congress, worried that TikTok may be unduly subject to Chinese government control, passed a law that would in effect stop TikTok from being made available in the U.S. unless it’s sold off to a non-China-linked company. This morning (Dec. 6), the federal D.C. Circuit upheld the law against a First Amendment challenge (and some other legal challenges); Jane Bambauer and Eugene Volokh explain. ABOUT...