Freedom of Expression Scholars Conference 2026
Conference date: April 24 – 25, 2026
The Floyd Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression's Fourteenth Annual Freedom of Expression Scholars Conference (FESC). The conference will be held at Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut on April 24-25, 2026.
Friday, April 24th
8:00 – 8:45 AM: Registration
8:45 – 9:00 AM: Introduction
9:00 – 10:00 AM: Breakout Session 1
| Room | Author(s) | Article | Discussant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 110 | David A. Spicer | Between Institution and Individual: (Mis)applying and Reframing Institutional Neutrality | Erin Carroll |
| 121 | Amin Afrouzi | Against Data Driven Price Discrimination | Sarah Haan |
| 128 | Jonathan Gingerich | Thinking in the Dark: The Case for Surreal Speech | Marc Blitz |
| 129 | Heidi Kitrosser | The Espionage Act and America’s Dangerously Unleashed President | George Wang |
10:00 – 10:15 AM: Break
10:15 – 11:15 AM: Breakout Session 2
| Room | Author(s) | Article | Discussant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 128 | Artur Pericles Monteiro | Platform Unbundling and the First Amendment | Amanda Shanor |
| 110 | Jo Wilson | Fora First: A Forum-Based Approach to Free Speech | Erin Miller |
| 121 | Franciska Coleman | Why Aren’t Scholars Braver? | Dessie Otachliska |
| 129 | Pinchas Huberman | The Coverage of Ordinary First Amendment Standards | Eugene Volokh |
11:15 – 11:30 AM: Break
11:30 – 12:30 PM: Breakout Session 3
| Room | Author(s) | Article | Discussant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 110 | Chinmayi Arun | Manipulative Infrastructures: Platform Power and Freedom of Thought | Enrique Armijo |
| 121 | David Schulz & Brendan O’Neill | Chilling Ambiguity: Can Espionage Act Liability be Imposed for Reporting the News? | Morgan Weiland |
| 128 | Wanling Su | What is Assembly? | Ashutosh Bhagwat |
| 129 | Evelyn Douek | The Unfulfilled Promise of Chilling Effects Doctrine | Evelyn Aswad |
12:30 – 1:30 PM: Lunch
1:30 – 3:00 PM: Plenary 1 – AI and the Future of the First Amendment
| Room | Author(s) | Article | Commentator |
|---|---|---|---|
| 129 | Helen Norton | Nonhuman Speakers and the Constitution | David Pozen |
| Tao Huang | Generative AI as an Institutional Tool under the First Amendment | ||
| Francesca Procaccini & Wendy K. Tam | Algorithmic Speech |
3:00 – 3:15 PM: Break
3:15 – 4:15 PM: Breakout Session 4
| Room | Author(s) | Article | Discussant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 128 | Morgan Weiland | Technologies of Participation | Amy Sanders |
| 121 | Caleb Yong | First Amendment Coverage in the Immigration Context | Heidi Kitrosser |
| 129 | Amanda Shanor & Serena Mayeri | Antidiscrimination as Pretext | Daniel Browning |
| 110 | Rossella Gabriele | Silent Weapons, Silenced Citizens: Irregular Warfare and the First Amendment | Mehtab Khan |
4:15 – 4:30 PM: Break
4:30 – 5:30 PM: Breakout Session 5
| Room | Author(s) | Article | Discussant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 129 | Claudia Haupt | Outlier: Professional Speech | Isaac May |
| 121 | Madhavi Singh | When Economic Boycotts Speak | Jane Bambauer |
| 128 | Christina Koningisor | The Press’s Two Bodies | Maru Smith-Opabola |
| 110 | Akriti Gaur | Covert Connection and the First Amendment | Alan Chen |
Saturday, April 25th
8:30 – 9:00 AM: Registration
9:00 – 10:00 AM: Breakout Session 6
| Room | Author(s) | Article | Discussant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 128 | Lauren Gailey | Salvaging Sullivan: Protecting the Press After Actual Malice | David Han |
| 121 | Jacob Schriner-Briggs | Democratic Backsliding and the Limits of First Amendment Legalism | Joseph Blocher |
| 129 | David Pozen & Jeremy Kessler | Epistemic Discovery, Psychedelic Drugs, and the First Amendment | Mason Marks |
10:00 – 10:15 AM: Break
10:15 – 11:15 AM: Breakout Session 7
| Room | Author(s) | Article | Discussant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 129 | Genevieve Lakier | The New Law of Viewpoint Discrimination (and its Problems) | Huang Tao |
| 128 | Robert Post | Misunderstanding University Speech | Peter Ormerod |
| 121 | Maru Smith-Opabola | A Countermajoritarian Press Clause | RonNell Andersen Jones |
11:15 – 11:30 AM: Break
11:30 – 12:30 PM: Breakout Session 8
| Room | Author(s) | Article | Discussant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 129 | Eugene Volokh & Evelyn Douek | Doxing and the First Amendment | Jordan Wallace-Wolf |
| 128 | Enrique Armijo & Ashutosh Bhagwat | The Right to an Audience | Hannah Bloch-Wehba |
| 121 | Alexander Tsesis | The Declaration of Independence in the Age of Digital Communications | Belle Torek |
12:30 – 12:45 PM: Break
12:45 – 2:15 PM: Lunch & Plenary 2
Plenary 2 – AI, Speech, and the Mind
| Room | Author(s) | Article | Commentator |
|---|---|---|---|
| 129 | Mason Marks | Governance by Generative AI | Helen Norton |
| Marc Blitz | XR, AI, and the Doctrinal Distinctiveness of Solitary Speech | ||
| Andrew Selbst & Margot Kaminski | AI and the Puzzle of Speakerless Speech |