National First Amendment Summit
The National Constitution Center, in partnership with a coalition of leading free speech organizations, convened a National First Amendment Summit this week to discuss the increasing threats to freedom of expression and to celebrate the opening of the Center’s new First Amendment gallery. To lead off the event, author and free speech advocate Salman Rushdie engaged in a virtual keynote conversation with Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, about the importance of free speech in a democratic society and the forces of censorship that imperil its existence. The summit featured a series of panels on the origins of the First Amendment, its role in democracy, the courts, and on campus and online. Summit participants included First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams, Bruce Brown of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Will Creeley of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, Stephen Solomon of NYU’s First Amendment Watch, and leading scholars Akhil Reed Amar, Jeannie Suk Gersen, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, Jacob Mchangama, and Nadine Strossen.
Watch the full event here or listen to Panel 3: The First Amendment on Campus and Online on this week’s episode of We the People.
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