Hugo L. Black Lecture on Freedom of Expression

The Fate of Free Speech in the Trump Era: A Conversation with Emily Bazelon and Khalilah L. Brown-Dean

In The Fate of Free Speech in the Trump Era, Executive Director of the Allbritton Center Khalilah L. Brown-Dean speaks with Emily Bazelon, a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine, co-host of Slate’s Political Gabfest podcast, and the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School. Bazelon writes frequently about the intersection between law and pressing social issues, including free speech, reproductive rights, the Supreme Court, and federal and state government, and offers a timely and provocative approach for understanding both the promise and challenge of unfettered free speech.

Monday, March 31, 2025, 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m., ET
Fayerweather- Beckham Hall and a Zoom Webinar
Reception following the event at 6:00 p.m, ET.

Please register for the event (in-person or virtual).

Presented by The Allbritton Center for the Study of Public Life and moderated by Dean Mary-Jane Rubenstein.

event flyer

This annual lecture is designed to bring to the Wesleyan Campus, public figures and scholars with experience and expertise in matters related to the First Amendment and freedom of expression. This lecture is endowed by Leonard S. Halpert ’44 (1922–2017), who believed that the First Amendment to the US Constitution is the basis upon which we enjoy all other Civil Rights. This lecture is named in honor of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black.

Hugo L. Black Lecturers 1991 - 2024

Amna Khalid and Jeff Snyder Carleton College
David Rabban, '71 University of Texas at Austin School of Law	Keith Whittington Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University
Bertrall Ross Chancellor's Professor of Law U.C. Berkeley Law	William Nelson
	Jelani Cobb IRA A. Lipman Professor of Journalism Columbia University
A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia	Rodney Smolla Dean University of Richmond Law School
Harry A. Blackmun Justice Supreme Court of the United States	Margaret Marshall Chief Justice Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
Anthony Lewis Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, The New York Times	Cass Sunstein School of Law University of Chicago
Nadine Strossen President American Civil Liberties Union	Patricia Williams Professor of Law Columbia University
Abner Mikva Former Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia	Laurence H. Tribe Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Harvard University
Norman Dorsen Stokes Professor of Law, NYU School of Law	Lawrence Lessig Director, Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethic Professor, Harvard Law School
Patricia Wald Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia	Jack M. Balkin Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment Yale Law School
Floyd Abrahms William J. Brennan Visiting Professor of First Amendment Law, Columbia University	Antonin Scalia Associate Justice Supreme Court of the United States
Kathleen Sullivan Dean Stanford Law School	Geoffrey R. Stone Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor University of Chicago Law School
Nat Hentoff Award-winning author and journalist	Aharon Barak President of the Israeli Supreme Court (Ret.), IDC Herzliya
Lee C. Bollinger President Columbia University	Robert Post Sol and Lillian Goldman Professor of Law Dean, Yale Law School
Anthony D. Romero Executive Director American Civil Liberties Union	Stanley Fish The Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor and Professor of Law Florida International University
Linda Greenhouse Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence Joseph M. Goldstein Lecturer in Law Yale Law School	John Finn Professor Emeritus Wesleyan University