PRESS RELEASE
The First Amendment Salon is pleased to announce that it has formed an association with the Floyd Abrams Institute for Free Expression at Yale Law School.
The Abrams Institute is administered by the Yale Information Society Project, directed by Yale Law Professor Jack Balkin. The Institute is both practical and scholarly. It includes a clinic for Yale Law students to engage in litigation, draft model legislation, and give advice to lawmakers and policy makers on issues of media freedom and informational access. It promotes scholarship and law reform on emerging questions concerning both traditional and new media. And it holds scholarly conferences and events at Yale on various First Amendment issues.
“I’m delighted,” Floyd Abrams commented, “that the Abrams Institute and the First Amendment Salon will be working together to explore areas in which there is continuing conflict as to the degree and nature of First Amendment protection. The First Amendment Salon has already played a major role in doing so and I’m hopeful that together we can increase still more the impact of debates about the First Amendment in today’s American society.”
The co-chairs of the Salon are Ronald Collins (University of Washington Law School), Lee Levine (Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz) and David Skover (Seattle University Law School). The members of its advisory board are:
- Floyd Abrams (Cahill Gordon & Reindel)
- Erwin Chemerinsky (U.C. Irvine Law School)
- Robert Corn-Revere (Davis Wright Tremaine)
- Robert O’Neil (University of Virginia Law School, emeritus)
- Paul M. Smith (Jenner & Block)
- Geoffrey Stone (University of Chicago Law School)
- David Schulz (Abrams Institute)
- Nadine Strossen (New York Law School) and
- Eugene Volokh (UCLA Law School)
“The idea behind the salon,” Levine explained, “is to engage members of the First Amendment community – lawyers, academics, journalists, and activists – in an ongoing discussion about some of the key free speech issues of our times. We thus welcome this unique association with such a distinguished Institute committed to the same mission.”
The Salon hosts a regular series of no-charge, 90-minute discussions concerning contemporary Supreme Court cases, books, articles, legal briefs, memoranda or timely topics. The by-invitation discussions take place at the offices of Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz in Washington, D.C., and New York as well as at the Abrams Institute in New Haven. The salons are privately video cast to the respective venues so as to allow for an exchange of views by people in different locales.
“Part of our mission is to bridge the gap between First Amendment legal scholars and practitioners. This association represents an important step in that direction,” Ron Collins said.
Previous featured participants in First Amendment Salons have included: Floyd Abrams, Erin Murphy (Bancroft), Steven R. Shapiro (ACLU), David Skover, Paul M. Smith, and Nadine Strossen.
The next salon is set for November 5th in N.Y.C. with a videocast to the Abrams Institute in New Haven. It will feature an exchange between Steven Shiffrin (Cornell Law School) and Robert Corn-Revere on the topic: “What’s Wrong with the First Amendment?” The dialogue will be moderated by Ashley Messenger (NPR associate counsel).
“The marketplace of ideas finds a welcome home in these salons,” said David Skover. “As a graduate of Yale Law School (1978), I am excited that my Alma Mater is engaged in the future of the First Amendment Salon,” he added.