Free Speech Unmuted: "Defamacast" and More: How American Defamation Law Works
Jane and I lay out the structure of American defamation law, using the recent lawsuits brought by FBI Director Kash Patel as a launching point. Special bonus: Almost no discussion of New York Times v. Sullivan (an important case but one that listeners have doubtless heard much about elsewhere).
And check out our past episodes:
- Speech, Not "Conduct": Supreme Court Rules on Conversion Talk Therapy
- Equal Time, Stephen Colbert, and the Future of Political Broadcasting
- Student Speech, Threats, and the First Amendment
- Can Journalists Be Charged for Involvement in Protests? The Don Lemon Dilemma
- 2025: The Year In Free Speech
- Does the First Amendment Protect Supposedly "Addictive" Algorithms?
- Defamation Law in the Age of AI with Lyrissa Lidsky
- Free Speech and the Future of Legal Education
- From Brandenburg to Britain: Rethinking Free Speech in the Digital Era with Eric Heinze
- Kimmel, the FCC, and the Government's Power Over Broadcast Speech
- A Conversation with FIRE's Greg Lukianoff
- A Burning First Amendment Issue: President Trump's Executive Order on Flag Desecration
- Free Speech and Doxing
- The Supreme Court Rules on Protecting Kids from Sexually Themed Speech Online
- Free Speech, Public School Students, and "There Are Only Two Genders"
- Can AI Companies Be Sued for What AI Says?
- Harvard v. Trump: Free Speech and Government Grants
- Trump's War on Big Law
- Can Non-Citizens Be Deported For Their Speech?
- Freedom of the Press, with Floyd Abrams
- Free Speech, Private Power, and Private Employees
- Court Upholds TikTok Divestiture Law
- Free Speech in European (and Other) Democracies, with Prof. Jacob Mchangama
- Protests, Public Pressure Campaigns, Tort Law, and the First Amendment
- Misinformation: Past, Present, and Future
- I Know It When I See It: Free Speech and Obscenity Laws
- Speech and Violence
- Emergency Podcast: The Supreme Court's Social Media Cases
- Internet Policy and Free Speech: A Conversation with Rep. Ro Khanna
- Free Speech, TikTok (and Bills of Attainder!), with Prof. Alan Rozenshtein
- The 1st Amendment on Campus with Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky
- Free Speech On Campus
- AI and Free Speech
- Free Speech, Government Persuasion, and Government Coercion
- Deplatformed: The Supreme Court Hears Social Media Oral Arguments
- Book Bans – or Are They?