Symposium: Equality-based Perspectives on the Free Speech Norm: 21st Century Considerations
Date: Friday October 31, 2008
Location: Wake Forest University - Worrell Professional Center, Room 1309
On October 31, 2008, the Wake Forest Law Review held its inaugural Fall Symposium, which was on the topic of "Equality-based Perspectives on the Free Speech Norm: 21st Century Considerations," under the direction of Professor Shannon Gilreath, University Fellow in Law and professor for interdisciplinary study at the law school. This symposium was designed as an international and interdisciplinary discussion of how a commitment to free speech should intersect with a commitment to equality in a multi-valued constitutional order committed also to diversity and multiculturalism.
A conversation of this type was particularly timely and was especially relevant to students and scholars of constitutional law and the First Amendment. The catalyst for the symposium, Harper v. Poway Unified School District (9th Circuit Court of Appeals, upholding a ban on anti-identity speech in schools on equality grounds), marked the first time in recent history that a court has embraced a decidedly victim-centered approach to interpreting the First Amendment. The case, which dealt specifically with homophobic speech in public schools, is an opportunity, especially in light of recent upsurges in racism, sexism, and homophobia, for a reconsideration of the harms of anti-identity, anti-equality speech and what might be done about the problems.
The symposium featured a lineup of U.S. and international scholars, well-known as inventive and imaginative thinkers in the areas of constitutional law and minority rights:
Professor Alexander Tsesis (Loyola University School of Law - Chicago) explored the question of free speech from an international democratic perspective, examining ways in which other democracies have regulated anti-identity, anti-equality speech, while still maintaining robust systems of political debate. |
Professor Jose Gabilondo (Florida International University) contributed an article arguing that legal liberalism's growing deference to religious speech threatens sexual minorities. |
Professor Shannon Gilreath (Wake Forest) examined a victim-based conceptualization of the free speech norm, specifically through the lens of American gay experience. |
Professor David Gillborn (University of London) examined the costs of so-called 'free speech' in the field of education, where racist pseudoscientific claims about race and intelligence continue to be given public credibility. |
Professor Michael Curtis (Wake Forest) argued the merits of a robust free speech system as the key to minority rights vindication. |
Professor Kenneth L. Marcus (City University of New York) focused on the wrongfulness of anti-Semitic speech and draw analogies to the regulation of sexual harassment to render the speech regulable. |
Professor Kathleen Mahoney (University of Calgary), who has helped secure several landmark women’s rights and speech cases in the Supreme Court of Canada, including the case banning pornography on equality grounds, provided the event’s keynote address. |
Professors Richard Delgado (University of Pittsburgh) and Jean Stefancic (Seattle University) are also contributing an article to the Symposium’s published edition, examining the absolutist speech position from the standpoint of what it inevitably leaves out.
This symposium of intellectually vigorous and innovative scholars has doubtlessly made a substantial addition to an already theoretically rich field of discussion.
For More Information, please contact:
Meredith Jones or Leslie Wagner
Symposium Editors
