Geoffrey Stone of the University of Chicago Law School and Eugene Volokh, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and UCLA School of Law, discuss the First Amendment and the rapidly evolving speech landscape—from social media and artificial intelligence to college campuses and the press. Thomas Donnelly, lead scholar at the National Constitutional Center, moderates.
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This episode was produced and mixed by Bill Pollock. With production support from Charles Sahm. Research was provided by Anna Salvatore and Tristan Worsham.
Participants
Geoffrey Stone is the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, where he joined the faculty in 1973. He is the author of many books on constitutional law, including Roe v. Dobbs: The Past, Present and Future of a Constitutional Right to Abortion, National Security, Leaks and Freedom of the Press and Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime. He an editor of the Supreme Court Review and has also written amicus briefs for constitutional scholars in a number of Supreme Court cases.
Eugene Volokh is senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at the UCLA School of Law. A preeminent First Amendment scholar, he has published articles and books on a wide range of free-speech issues and is the founder and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a leading legal blog.
Thomas Donnelly is lead scholar at the National Constitution Center and a law professor at the University of Richmond. Prior to joining the Center in 2016, he served as counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center, as a Climenko Fellow and lecturer on law at Harvard Law School, and as a law clerk for Judge Thomas Ambro on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Additional Resources
- Moody v. NetChoice, LLC (2024)
- “What is Section 230?,” We the People (June 4, 2020)
- Citizen United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) National Constitution Center, Supreme Court Case Library
- “Meta reaches landmark $18 billion settlement with states in trial over teen social media addiction,” Associated Press (Aug 26, 2026)
- Free Speech Coalition, INC v. Paxton (2025)
- Ashcroft v. ACLU (2004)
- NRA v. Vullo (2024)
- “Scaling Laws: Eugene Volokh: Navigating Libel and Liability in the AI Age,” Lawfare (July 17, 2025)
- New York Times Company v. Sullivan (1964) National Constitution Center, Supreme Court Case Library
- Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.(1974)
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