“Algorithms, AI, & First Amendment Rights”
Clinic director Clare Norins (third from right) and Clinic student Ren Schmitt (first from right) participated in two panel events as part of Yale Law School’s October 2023 Access & Accountability Conference.
Black Box Platforming: Challenges of Social Media Regulation
Professor Norins facilitated a plenary panel on issues of platform access and content moderation. The discussion addressed challenges to content-moderation laws passed by the Texas and Florida; courts’ efforts to reign in government jawboning in Missouri v. Biden; and efforts by multiple states to impose age-verification laws on platforms and websites.
The panel featured:
- Jack Balkin, Yale Law School;
- Jane Bambauer, University of Florida Law School
- Jameel Jaffer, Knight First Amendment Institute
- Thomas Leatherbury, SMU Dedman School of Law
- Emma Llansó, Center for Democracy and Technology
Clinic Success Stories
Ren Schmitt, who was enrolled in the Clinic for academic year 2022-2023, spoke about the Clinic’s successful litigation of Hassan v. City of Atlanta, a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a photojournalist arrested while working during the Summer 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Atlanta.
Schmitt presented alongside students from fellow First Amendment Clinics at Duke, UC Irvine, and Yale.
The Issue
Free Speech
The First Amendment protects the right of private individuals to engage in speech and expression without being censored or punished by the government because of their viewpoint. While the government may constitutionally regulate the time, place, and manner of private speech in public forums it must do so in a viewpoint-neutral manner and, depending on…
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