The Free Speech Century

“The Supreme Court’s 1919 decision in “Schenck v. United States” is one of the most important free speech cases in American history. Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, it is most famous for first invoking the phrase “clear and present danger.” Because of this decision, we now have an elaborate set of free speech laws and norms but the context is always shifting. New societal threats like terrorism, and new technologies of communication continually reshape our understanding of what speech should be allowed. How has our understanding of the First Amendment transformed over time? Has the social media age created new threats to freedom of expression? Lee C. Bollinger is the president of Columbia University. A leading First Amendment scholar, he is widely published on freedom of speech and the press, including Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open (2010), and currently serves on the faculty of Columbia Law School. Geoffrey R. Stone is the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He was appointed by President Obama to serve on the President’s Review Group, which was charged with evaluating our nation’s foreign intelligence surveillance programs in the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks.”