The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Free Speech Unmuted: Can the President Kick Reporters out of the White House?
When President Trump moved to bar CNN, MSNOW, and Politico from the White House over "biased" coverage, it set off a fast-moving legal showdown. My co-host Jane Bambauer I break down why the law was surprisingly clear-cut. Drawing on a 50-year-old D.C. Circuit precedent and a fresh ruling on Oval Office access, they explain the crucial distinction between the press briefing room (a forum where reporters can't be excluded based on viewpoint) and the Oval Office (the president's own turf, where he can talk to whomever he wants). Plus: the due process twist that let a judge sidestep the First Amendment question entirely, the White House's slow-motion compliance with the restraining order, and why "the First Amendment is not a Freedom of Information Act."
Also check out our past episodes:
- Spoiler Alert: Can You Get Sued For Revealing A Plot Point?
- The Process Is The Punishment: ABC v. FCC with Stuart Benjamin
- Can AI Libel You? The Robby Starbuck Case
- Shrexting: Free Speech or Criminal Harassment?
- The First Amendment and Privacy Rights
- 'Defamacast' and More: How American Defamation Law Works
- 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?
