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University of Illinois Law Review 2022 Symposium: "The Government's Speech and the Constitution"

Event Type
Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor
University of Illinois Law Review, The Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law (University of Colorado Boulder)
Virtual
wifi event
Date
Apr 16, 2021   10:00 am  
Cost
Free, but registration requested.
Registration
Register HERE
Contact
Yongli Yang
E-Mail
yyang.lawreview@gmail.com
Views
434
Originating Calendar
College of Law - All Other Events Calendar

University of Illinois Law Review 2022 Symposium
"The Government's Speech and the Constitution"

April 16, 2021
10 am - 2 pm (CST)


REGISTER to Attend: https://illinois.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYscuyrqzssHtRiqT8jt3LOvOb7kyHcvJ92

 

The government’s speech is inevitable and often constitutionally valuable: even at its most infuriating, the government’s speech informs the public about its government’s principles and priorities, providing us with important information that helps us evaluate our government. The Supreme Court has thus appropriately recognized that the Free Speech Clause generally does not bar the government’s ability to express its own views when doing the government’s work.

But as the government’s expressive capacities grow, so too does the potential for undermining others’ speech and distorting public discourse. Indeed, the government is unique among speakers because of its coercive power as sovereign, its considerable resources, its privileged access to key information, and its wide variety of speaking roles as policymaker, commander-in-chief, employer, educator, health care provider, property owner, and more. Yet, as Helen Norton suggests in her recent book on “The Government’s Speech and the Constitution,” the Court’s government speech doctrine to date remains dangerously incomplete in its failure to wrestle with the ways in which the government’s speech sometimes affirmatively threatens specific constitutional values.

When we discuss constitutional law, we usually focus on the constitutional rules that apply to what the government does. Far less clear are the constitutional rules that apply to what the government says. This Symposium will engage a variety of questions explored in Norton’s book: When does the speech of this unusually powerful speaker violate our constitutional rights and liberties? More specifically, when does the government’s expression threaten liberty or equality? And under what circumstances does the Constitution prohibit our government from lying to us?

AGENDA

10 a.m., Welcoming Remarks
Vikram D. Amar, University of Illinois College of Law

10:05 a.m., Opening Keynote
Helen Norton, University of Colorado Law School

10:15 a.m., Panel I

Panelists:
Claudia E. Haupt and Wendy E. Parmet, Northeastern University School of Law
Kate Shaw, Cardozo School of Law
Danielle K. Citron, University of Virginia School of Law

Moderator:
Jason Mazzone, University of Illinois College of Law

11:20 a.m., Break

11:30 a.m., Panel II

Panelists:
William Araiza, Brooklyn Law School

Mary-Rose Papandrea, UNC School of Law
Clifford Rosky, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
Alexander Tsesis, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Moderator:
Jason Mazzone, University of Illinois College of Law

12:50 p.m., Break

1 p.m., Panel III

Panelists:
Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Berkeley School of Law

Michael S. Kang, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and Jacob Eisler, University of Southampton Law School
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, Stetson University College of Law

Moderator:
Jason Mazzone, University of Illinois College of Law

For more information:
Yongli Yang
JD Candidate, Class of 2021
Managing Internet & Symposium Editor, University of Illinois Law Review, 2020-2021
University of Illinois

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