Hugo L. Black Lecture on Freedom of Expression

The First Amendment Right of Academic Freedom

Professor David Rabban, '71 (University of Texas at Austin, School of Law)

Thursday, March 30, 2023, 7:00 pm, ET

Downey House 200, and a Zoom Webinar

294 High Street, Middletown, CT

Reception preceding the event at 6:00 pm

Highwaymen Common Room, Romance Language House, 300 High Street.

Please register for the webinar event here.

Please register for the in-person event here.

Hugo Black Lecture poster

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.

David Rabban, '71, Bio

Professor David Rabban, Wesleyan class of 1971, served as counsel to the American Association of University Professors for several years before joining the Texas faculty in 1983. He served as General Counsel of the AAUP from 1998 to 2006 and Chair of its Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure from 2006 to 2012. His teaching and research focus on free speech, higher education and the law, and American legal history. He is best known for his path-breaking work on free speech in American history. He is the author of Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, 1870- 1920 (Cambridge,1997) and Law's History: American Legal Thought and the Transatlantic Turn to History. His many articles have appeared in Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review and elsewhere. He is currently working on a book about academic freedom and the First Amendment (Harvard University Press).

Professor David Rabban’s teaching and research focus on free speech, higher education and the law, and American legal history. He is best known for his path-breaking work on free speech in American history. He is the author of Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years, 1870- 1920 (Cambridge,1997) and Law's History: American Legal Thought and the Transatlantic Turn to History. His many articles have appeared in Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review and elsewhere. He is currently working on a book about academic freedom and the First Amendment (Harvard University Press).

Hugo L. Black Lecturers 1991 - 2022

Keith Whittington Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University	William Nelson
Bertrall Ross Chancellor's Professor of Law U.C. Berkeley Law	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