Public Discourse Projects: Discussion over Division
Date: Wednesday, February 5, 2025 at noon
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School
Learn about civil discourse and talk with fellow students about some of today’s most pressing policy issues! This event will start with a short introduction to civil discourse. After this, you’ll talk in small groups about your various perspectives on topics such as free speech on campus. If you plan to attend, please reserve a spot.

2nd Annual Voices for Liberty Symposium
Date: Friday, November 15 at 8:00 a.m.
Register Here: Event Listing 
Join us for a full day of senior scholars and exciting new voices presenting cutting-edge research on the role expression played in women’s economic freedom and self-segregated communities, and continues to play in religious minority and irreligious rights and international racial tolerance.

Questions? Please contact vfli@gmu.edu.

If you are interested in co-hosting or sponsoring an event, please contact us at liberty@gmu.edu.

Conference Program

Friday, November 15, 2024

All times are in Eastern Standard Time Zone (EST) / Minor details subject to change

8:00 – 8:50 a.m.: Breakfast and Networking

8:55 a.m.: Welcome Remarks: JoAnn Koob, Assistant Professor and Director, Liberty & Law Center, Scalia Law School, George Mason University

9:00 – 10:00 a.m.
Paper #1: The Jewish Dilemma in Supporting Free Speech and Countering Antisemitism on American College Campuses, by David L. Bernstein, Founder and CEO, Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, and David E. Bernstein, Distinguished University Professor and Executive Director, Liberty & Law Center, Scalia Law School, George Mason University

Topic: Speech and Antisemitism

• Authors: David L. Bernstein, Founder and CEO, Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, and David E. Bernstein, Distinguished University Professor and Executive Director, Liberty & Law Center, Scalia Law School, George Mason University
• Discussant #1: Kenneth Marcus, Founder and Chairman of The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University
• Discussant #2: Samuel Goldman, Associate Professor of Political Science, George Washington University
• Moderator: Debi Ghate, Initiative Director, Voices for Liberty, Liberty & Law Center, George Mason University

10:00 – 10:15 a.m.: Break

10:15 – 11:15 a.m.
Paper #2: Myra Bradwell and the Chicago Legal News: Speech and the March for all Civil Rights, by Anastasia Boden, Senior Attorney for Equality and Opportunity, Pacific Legal Foundation

Topic: Civil Rights Advocacy

• Author: Anastasia Boden, Senior Attorney for Equality and Opportunity, Pacific Legal Foundation
• Discussant #1: Ellen Dubois, Distinguished Research Professor, Meyer and Renee Luskin Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles
• Discussant #2: Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law, Emerita, New York Law School
• Moderator: Christopher Newman, Associate Professor of Law, Liberty & Law Center, Scalia Law School, George Mason University

11:15 – 11:30 a.m.: Break

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Paper #3: Spewing Hate or Speaking Tolerance: How Free Speech Affects Social Norms and Minority Rights, by Claudia Williamson Kramer, Probasco Chair of Free Enterprise, Professor of Economics, Director, Center for Economic Education, UTC Gary W. Rollins College of Business

Topic: Speech Impact on Global Tolerance

• Author: Claudia Williamson Kramer, Probasco Chair of Free Enterprise, Professor of Economics, Director, Center for Economic Education, UTC Gary W. Rollins College of Business
• Discussant #1: Eugene Volokh, Professor of Law Emeritus at UCLA, and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford
• Discussant #2: Garett Jones, Professor of Economics, George Mason University
• Moderator: David E. Bernstein, Distinguished University Professor and Executive Director, Liberty & Law Center, Scalia Law School, George Mason University

12:30 – 1:00 p.m.: Networking Lunch

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Paper #4: Free Speech, Fighting Faiths, and Nones: How the First Amendment Came to Protect Freedom of Conscience for All, by Katie McKerall, Practicing Public Interest Attorney, American Humanist Association

Topic: Free Speech Protections for Religiously Unaffiliated

• Author: Katie McKerall, Practicing Public Interest Attorney, American Humanist Association
• Discussant #1: Emerson Sykes, Staff Attorney, Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, ACLU
• Discussant #2: Onkar Ghate, Chief Philosophy Officer and Senior Fellow,
  Ayn Rand Institute
• Moderator: Tim Hoefer, Consultant, Voices for Liberty

2:00 – 2:15 p.m.: Break

2:15 – 3:15 p.m.
Paper #5: The Black-Controlled Town of Mound Bayou as a Bridgehead for Free Speech in Jim Crow Mississippi, by David Beito, Professor Emeritus, University of Alabama

Topic: Self-Governance and Racial Justice

• Author: David Beito, Professor Emeritus, University of Alabama
• Discussant #1: Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Emeritus, Harvard Law School, Harvard University
• Discussant #2: Steven Reich, Professor of History, James Madison University
• Moderator: JoAnn Koob, Assistant Professor and Director, Liberty & Law Center, Scalia Law School, George Mason University

3:15 – 3:30 p.m.: Break

3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Paper #6: Religious Minorities and Secular Rights, by Joshua C. McDaniel, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, Harvard University

Topic: Expanding Protections to Religious Minorities

• Author: Joshua C. McDaniel, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, Harvard University
• Discussant #1: Stephanie Barclay, Professor of Law, Georgetown Law, Georgetown University
• Discussant #2: Christopher Newman, Associate Professor of Law, Liberty & Law Center, Scalia Law School, George Mason University
• Moderator: JoAnn Koob, Assistant Professor and Director, Liberty & Law Center, Scalia Law School, George Mason University

4:30 – 4:45 p.m.: Break

4:45 – 5:30 p.m.: Closing Plenary

• Speaker: Erec Smith, Research Fellow at the Cato Institute, Associate Professor of Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania
• Speaker: John Wood Jr., National Ambassador for Braver Angels
• Moderator: Debi Ghate, Initiative Director, Voices for Liberty, Liberty & Law Center, George Mason University

5:30 – 6:30 p.m.: Reception

Generously Funded by the Stanton Foundation

Address, Directions & Parking

The symposium will be held at 3351 Fairfax Dr, Arlington, VA 22201. Signs will be posted directing registrants to the check-in desk.

Visitor Parking

• Van Metre Hall (formerly Founders) Garage is located directly beneath Scalia Law School. To access the garage, use the entrance located off of Kirkwood Drive, in between Fairfax Drive and Washington Boulevard. Currently, the rates are $3/hour with a daily maximum of $15 Monday – Friday.
• There is metered parking in front of the law school on Fairfax Drive and long-term metered parking across the street in front of St. Charles Church.

*Note: We are unable to validate parking.

Discussion over Division: Election Edition
Date: Tuesday, November 12, 2024, from Noon to 1:00 p.m.
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School
Food/Beverage: ​Panera Bread
Talk with fellow students about the 2024 election over lunch! During this event you’ll learn about civil discourse, how to go about it, and then talk in small groups about the election facilitated by faculty members including Professors Koob, Atkins, Davis, and others. Please register if you plan to attend.

How it works:

• Professor Koob will speak about civil discourse and provide practical instruction for how to engage in civil discourse.
• You will be placed randomly put into small groups for conversations about the election, along with a professor who will help moderate discussions.
• A conversation guide will be provided to help start your conversation and keep it going; however, you are welcome to stray from it if that is where your conversation leads.

Public Discourse Projects: Discussion over Division
Date: Tuesday, February 20, 2024 at noon
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School, Hazel Hall Room 215
Learn about civil discourse and talk with fellow students about some of today’s most pressing policy issues! This event will start with a short introduction to civil discourse. After this, you’ll talk in small groups about your various perspectives on topics such as free speech on campus.

Public Discourse Projects: Discussion over Division
Date: Tuesday, January 30, 2024 at noon
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School, Hazel Hall Room 215
Learn about civil discourse and talk with fellow students about some of today’s most pressing policy issues! This event will start with a short introduction to civil discourse. After this, you’ll talk in small groups about your various perspectives on topics such as free speech on campus.

Voices for Liberty Symposium on Civil Rights and Free Speech
Date: Friday, September 22, 2023 at 9:30 a.m.
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School
This symposium brings together senior scholars and exciting new voices to present cutting-edge research on the role freedom of speech plays in advancing civil rights movements (past, present and future). Scholars will present new papers exploring whether free expression helps or harms the cause of social progress, entrenching an unjust status quo or providing critical support for groups wishing to challenge it. Topics include the free speech rights of BLM protestors, the impact of speech restrictions on disability rights, Section 230, and the censoring of abolitionist newspapers in the American south.

Voices for Liberty Spring 2023: Research Roundtable
Date: June 11-12, 2023
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School, Hazel Hall Room 215
The Center will host a research roundtable as part of its Voices for Liberty initiative. At the roundtable, original scholarship about the relationship between free speech and civil rights will be presented, discussed, and critiqued by a group of about twenty scholars and policy experts. For more information about this event, please contact VFLI@gmu.edu.

Public Discourse Projects: Discussion over Division
Date: Tuesday, February 28th at noon
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School, Hazel Hall Room 215
Antonin Scalia Law School students are invited to chat about important policy topics and current events, while learning about each other’s perspectives. Participants will be matched with students of differing political views for engaging conversations.

Public Discourse Projects: Discussion over Division
Date: Wednesday, February 8th at noon
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School, Hazel Hall Room 215
Antonin Scalia Law School students are invited to chat about important policy topics and current events, while learning about each other’s perspectives. Participants will be matched with students of differing political views for engaging conversations.

The Future of Rights: Frameworks, Trends, and Alternative Visions
Date: Friday, November 18th at noon
Location: Zoom
The concept of rights has informed our understanding of the freedom of persons in the context of the power of the state. But our understanding of the content of rights has changed over time. How were rights understood in the past, and how do we understand them in the present? And how can we use our answers to those questions to better inform our understanding of rights in the future? These questions, and others like them, will be addressed at this half-day, online conference.

Public Discourse Projects: Discussion over Division
Date: Wednesday, November 2nd at noon
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School, Hazel Hall Room 215
Antonin Scalia Law School students are invited to chat about important policy topics and current events, while learning about each other’s perspectives. Participants will be matched with students of differing political views for engaging conversations.

Public Discourse Projects: Discussion over Division
Date: Tuesday, October 25th at 5:00 p.m.
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School, Hazel Hall Room 215
Antonin Scalia Law School students are invited to chat about important policy topics and current events, while learning about each other’s perspectives. Participants will be matched with students of differing political views for engaging conversations.

Beyond “Defensive Crouch,” Religious Freedom Conference
Date: March 24-25, 2022
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School
This conference brought together top law and religion scholars, litigators, and policy experts to explore: the goods and values that religious exercise furthers, including institutional religious exercise; how religious values can not only serve, but even better promote the values of equality, dignity, and freedom as currently articulated by the state; and how religious institutions might better understand and communicate the social worth of religion and religious freedom. Findings were presented in four panels over the course of two days.

Public Discourse Projects: How has Social Media Changed the Political and Social Landscape?
Date: Tuesday, March 8 at noon
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School
Students participated in lunch discussions about how mass engagement with social media has affected public discourse, and whether the change has been for better or worse. Questions? Email liberty@gmu.edu.

The Moral Case for Off-label Marketing
Date: March 1st at noon
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School
In this presentation, Dr. Jessica Flanigan, the Richard L. Morrill Chair in Ethics and Democratic Values and an associate professor of Leadership Studies and Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and Law (PPEL) at the University of Richmond, discussed the dangers of restricting off-label drug marketing and why manufacturers should be legally permitted to distribute truthful information about prescription drugs.

Public Discourse Projects: Discussion over Division
Date: Wednesday, February 23 at 5:00 p.m.
Location: Antonin Scalia Law School
Antonin Scalia Law School students were invited to chat about important policy topics and current events, while learning about each other’s perspectives. Participants were matched with students of differing political views for engaging conversations.