Book Talk: Dr. Mary Anne Franks' Fearless Speech
Featuring
Dr. Mary Anne Franks
Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law, George Washington Law School; President and Legislative & Tech Policy Director, Cyber Civil Rights Initiative
Robert Corn-Revere
Chief Counsel, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)
About the Book and Discussion
For far too long, the First Amendment has been treated as the measure and the model of expressive freedom, as if the vast potential and the power of speech could be contained within a narrow legal doctrine. But it was not the First Amendment that abolished slavery, or exposed the horrors of lynching, or fought for women’s equal rights. Fearless speakers accomplished those things, most often without the shield of the First Amendment, while their persecutors have often wielded the First Amendment as a sword. Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment (Bold Type Books, 2024) offers a critique of how First Amendment doctrine has stifled and domesticated the possibilities of free speech. Even more importantly, it is an introduction to and a celebration of speakers whose expression has sparked revolutions, protected the vulnerable, and held the powerful accountable—without, despite, or beyond the First Amendment.
The event will feature a review/critique of that book by First Amendment advocate and scholar Robert Corn-Revere, chief counsel of FIRE and formerly a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine in Washington, D.C. Corn-Revere has previously offered a critique of Professor Franks’ First Amendment theories in The Anti-Free Speech Movement, 87 Brook. L. Rev. 145 (2021). That article is excerpted from his book The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder—The First Amendment and the Censor’s Dilemma (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
That will be followed by a broader discussion involving Franks, Corn-Revere, and several other First Amendment scholars.
This colloquium is being presented as part of the David G. Trager Public Policy Lecture Series, which honors the late Hon. David G. Trager, Senior Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, who served with great distinction as Dean of Brooklyn Law School from 1983 to 1993. Judge Trager was a dedicated member of the Brooklyn Law School community who also served on the Board of Trustees and the faculty.
Moderators
William Araiza, Stanley A. August Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
Joel Gora, Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
Discussants
Ron Collins, Co-founder of the History Book Festival and former Harold S. Shefelman Scholar, University of Washington Law School
Sarah C. Haan, Class of 1958 Uncas and Anne McThenia Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University School of Law
About the Feautured Speakers
Dr. Mary Anne Franks is the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor in Intellectual Property, Technology, and Civil Rights Law at George Washington Law School. Her areas of expertise include First Amendment law, Second Amendment law, law and technology, criminal law, and family law. Franks also serves as the president and legislative & tech policy director of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, the leading U.S.-based nonprofit organization focused on image-based sexual abuse. Her model legislation on the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images (NDII, sometimes referred to as “revenge porn”) has served as the template for multiple state and federal laws, and she is a frequent advisor to policymakers, lawmakers, and tech companies on privacy, free expression, and safety issues. In addition to Fearless Speech, Franks is the author of the award-winning book, The Cult of the Constitution (Stanford Press, 2019). She holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a doctorate from Oxford University, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar. She is an affiliate fellow of the Yale Law School Information Society Project, a fellow with the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, and is admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court and the District of Columbia. She is Taiwanese-American and originally from Pine Bluff, Ark.
Robert Corn-Revere is a prominent writer, thinker, and advocate on free expression issues. He has been a First Amendment litigator for more than four decades and has argued cases in courts across the United States, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He is regularly listed as a leading First Amendment and media law practitioner by The Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers Washington, D.C., and by Chambers USA. The Best Lawyers in America named him as Washington, D.C.’s 2017 “Lawyer of the Year” in the areas of First Amendment Law and Litigation – First Amendment. He was again named as Best Lawyers’ “Lawyer of the Year” for First Amendment Law for 2019 and 2021, and in Media Law for 2022. He is listed in Washingtonian magazine's Top Lawyers Hall of Fame for Lifetime Achievement. In 2023, he joined FIRE from the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine (DWT) where he was a partner for 20 years. Before his time at DWT, he was a partner at Hogan & Hartson and served as legal adviser and later chief counsel to Federal Communications Commission Chairman James H. Quello. In addition to The Mind of the Censor (Cambridge University Press 2021), which explores how free expression became part of the American identity, Corn-Revere has written widely on freedom of expression and co-authored the three-volume treatise, Modern Communication Law, published by West Group. In 2003, he successfully petitioned Governor George E. Pataki to grant the first posthumous pardon in New York history to the late comedian Lenny Bruce, who was convicted for “obscene” comedy routines.
Please RSVP by Tuesday, April 15.
Reception to follow program.
More Information
For general inquiries regarding this event, please contact the Brooklyn Law School Office of Events at events@brooklaw.edu or (718) 780-0321.
Requests for a reasonable accommodation based on a disability to attend this event should be made to the Law School’s reasonable accommodations coordinator: accommodations@brooklaw.edu. Please make your request at least 10 days before the event. We will do our best to address accommodation requests made after the 10 days.