By Angele Latham, BrieAnna J. Frank, Taylor Seely, Stephany Matat, and Cate Charron
NASHVILLE − There’s turmoil over the state of free speech in America.
The issue took center stage as free speech advocates, lawyers and experts from around the world convened recently at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
Conversations at the Global Free Speech Summit, co-organized by the Future of Free Speech and Vanderbilt University, focused heavily on recent pressures confronting the First Amendment in the United States. Lawyers and scholars largely agreed the government has taken an “unprecedented” and outsized role in attempting to curtail certain speech since the Trump administration took office in January.
Even among those who did not see eye-to-eye on government action, there was agreement on this: a culture more hostile to free speech across the world needs immediate action, especially as political violence becomes more commonplace.
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