The Free State Foundation’s Seventeenth Annual Policy Conference is fast approaching on Tuesday, March 25. The agenda is here, but, as always, please note it is possible there may be adjustments in the time slots due to circumstances beyond our control.
I’m delighted that we have assembled a remarkable lineup of speakers that includes Senator Ted Cruz, Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Congressman Richard Hudson, Chairman of the House Subcommittee of Communications and Technology. And Brendan Carr, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and Andrew Ferguson, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, along with many more notables, including FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington, FTC Commissioner Melissa Holyoak, former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, and former FCC Commissioner and FSF Adjunct Senior Fellow Michael O'Rielly. For the full list of speakers, and other conference information and a registration link, click here.
In other words, as usual, the conference will be an unrivaled forum for up-to-date discussion and debate on the most important and consequential public policy issues affecting communications and Internet law and policy, as well as competition, and consumer protection issues.
But here I want to highlight one session in particular: Jonathan Turley, Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law, George Washington University Law School, and a Fox News Media Contributor, will discuss his important new book: "The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage," in which he explains why free speech, indeed, is "The Indispensable Right."
If you follow the Free State Foundation's work then you know that protecting the First Amendment's right to free speech against government infringement, and promoting a Constitutional Culture in which our nation's citizens can speak freely even when the First Amendment itself does not protect such freedom, always has been an important part of our mission.
Over the years, I have written often explaining why this aspect of our mission is so critical. Suffice it to say for my purposes here, defense of free speech is as important as ever, especially as the nation has witnessed notorious examples of censorship – by both the government and by private entities, including by some of the most dominant Internet websites – over the past five or so years.
In his book, Jonathan Turley writes: "We are living through another period of such public distemper where our most cherished institutions and rights are being questioned by both the left and the right." He goes on to say that, most menacingly, today's rage is directed at the one right that Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called "indispensable for the maintenance of all other rights: free speech."
And Professor Turley warns that the "use of euphemisms like 'disinformation' and 'content moderation' does not change the fact that they are part of a comprehensive effort to control, and, in some cases, punish the exercise of free expression."
Because I believe that the ability of our nation's individual citizens to speak freely is not only indispensable to maintaining our democracy but also to preserving the competition, innovation, and investments upon which free markets depend in order to function effectively, I can't wait to hear Professor Turley's remarks next Tuesday.
There's that – and so much more – that awaits!
Here's the agenda. And here's the link to register if you wish to attend!
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