Hosts and law professors Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer dive into President Trump’s new executive order on flag burning. Is it bold politics or bad law? Or maybe both? They break down what the order really says, how it clashes with First Amendment precedents, and why targeting flag desecration even under otherwise content-neutral laws could violate the First Amendment. Jane and Eugene also discuss the tricky question of whether non-citizens can be deported for speech or symbolic expression that is protected for citizens (more on that in this Free Speech Unmuted episode).

Recorded on August 26, 2025.

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Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer dive into the debate about “doxing” — putting someone’s personal info out in public, usually to call them out or put pressure on them. They talk about how the term is defined (or not) in different laws, and how those laws bump up against the First Amendment. They also share real-life examples — from civil rights boycotts to the online outrage over the dentist who shot Cecil the Lion — and look at how exceptions like “true threats” or “incitement” fit in. The big case in this area is the recent Kratovil v. City of New Brunswick, where New Jersey’s highest court upheld “Daniel’s Law,” letting judges and police demand their home addresses not be published online (including by news sites). Eugene and Jane break down what that means for privacy and free speech.

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Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss the Court’s June 27 decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, which upheld a state law that required pornography sites to “use reasonable age verification methods ... to verify” that their users are adults.

Recorded on July 1, 2025.

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Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss the First Amendment rules pertaining to public school students. The occasion: The Supreme Court just declined to consider a federal appeals court case that led a public school to punish a student for wearing a T-shirt saying “There Are Only Two Genders.” Did the lower court get that right?

Recorded on June 3, 2025. 

A mother sues Character.AI, claiming that a conversation between her teenage son and a Character.AI chatbot led him to commit suicide. A conservative activist sues Meta, claiming that its AI-generated false accusations about him. Jane Bambauer and Eugene Volokh analyze these cases, and more broadly, discuss lawsuits against AI companies, and possible First Amendment defenses to those lawsuits.

Recorded on May 6, 2025. 

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss the Administration’s freezing of grants to Harvard, and Harvard’s lawsuit challenging the freeze.

The Trump Administration has announced that it was freezing grants to Harvard, and demanding that Harvard change many of its policies and practices in order to get back in the Administration’s good graces.  President Trump has also suggested that Harvard might lose its tax-exempt status for “pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness.’” Would such a cutoff of funding or tax exemption benefits violate the First Amendment? Jane and Eugene dig deep into that.

Recorded on April 22, 2025.

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss President Trump’s Executive Orders that target major law firms (such as WilmerHale and Jenner & Block).

The orders target the firms for retaliation based largely on their past support of various left-wing legal causes. Do those Orders violate the firms’ (and their clients’) Free Speech Clause or Petition Clause rights? Might they also violate the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause (in civil cases) and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel (in criminal cases)?

Recorded on March 31, 2025.

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss the First Amendment and immigration law.

Recorded on March 12, 2025.

Does the Free Press Clause provide extra rights to the institutional press, or instead protect all speakers’ equal rights to use the printing press and its technological heirs? Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss this and more with legendary First Amendment litigator Floyd Abrams.

Download the 2025 Stanford Emerging Technology Review here: https://stanford.io/4bilFg0 

Recorded on February 21, 2025.

​The Constitution generally covers only government action; if a private university expels students for their speech, or a private shopping mall forbids leafletting, or a private employer fires an employee for backing some candidate, that doesn’t violate the First Amendment. But state laws in roughly half the states do limit some such private restrictions on speech and political activity, especially ones imposed by private employers, much as federal law limits private employers’ restriction on their employees’ religious activity. Should there be more such laws? Fewer? Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer talk about this, and more.

Recorded on January 28, 2025.

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