The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill celebrated its fourteenth First Amendment Day on Wednesday, October 4, 2023.
This campus-wide, daylong series of events is designed to both celebrate the First Amendment and explore its role in the lives of Carolina students. Students and other members of the university community will read from banned books and discuss the public university’s special role as a marketplace of ideas and the need to be tolerant when others exercise their rights. As always, First Amendment Day is observed during National Banned Books Week.
First Amendment Day was organized by the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy and is one of the highlights of the year for the UNC community.
2023 First Amendment Day Events
Banned Books Reading
Front steps of Manning Hall
10:00 am - 11:00 am
The Information and Library Science Student Association is excited to host a “Freedom to Read” event in honor of Banned Books Week.
Dr. Francesca Tripodi will introduce the event, followed by several readings of banned books by SILS students. Students and other members of the university community are invited to join and discuss the public university’s special role as a marketplace of ideas and the need to be tolerant when others exercise their rights.
Before the readings, please join for us coffee and light refreshments in the SILS library in Manning Hall.
This event is free and open to the public.
This is just one of many events we are hosting for First Amendment Day!
Ethics and the First Amendment in Conflict? A Student Debate
Freedom Forum Conference Center on the Third Floor of Carroll Hall
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
The UNC Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Team will debate timely ethical issues related to the freedoms protected by the First Amendment: #Freedom of Tweets.
The Parr Center for Ethics sponsors the UNC-Chapel Hill Ethics Bowl team that competes in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Ethics Bowl each November. The Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Competition (IEB) is a part of a larger ethics bowl initiative by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics.
The UNC-Chapel Hill Ethics Bowl team provides students with an opportunity to practice applying moral theories and principles of argument that they learn in their ethics classes in the interactive format of the Ethics Bowl. Competition preparation involves significant research, writing, understanding ethical theories, and oral presentation. The provided case studies involve ethical issues in practical contexts, including engineering, law, medicine, personal relationships, education, and domestic and international politics. Specific questions may concern a wide range of ethically salient topics, including but not limited to plagiarism, dating and friendship, gun control, environmental policy, civilian casualties, and globalization.
This event will showcase the current UNC IEB team, as they present an abridged and interactive version of a regular competition round. The round will include information about a selected case study, a presentation by one team, comments from the opposing team, a response from the presenting team, and a Q&A period with the audience.
This event is free and open to the public.
This is just one of many events we are hosting on First Amendment Day!
Video from the event is available here:
Disability Inclusion and the Marketplace of Ideas
Room 5046, UNC School of Law
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
More than 42 million Americans live with a disability. This includes citizens with hearing, vision, cognitive, or physical disabilities. Nearly a quarter of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 report having a disability, and Americans in certain racial and ethnic groups are more likely to have a disability. Americans with disabilities earn less than other citizens, have lower rates of technology adoption, and often face more hardships accessing employment and healthcare, particularly online. Their voices are often forgotten in the First Amendment’s marketplace of ideas and rights of access, but their input in that marketplace is increasingly more important as the U.S. population ages and as healthcare and technological advances allow more people with disabilities to live longer and more independently.
This panel, which is co-sponsored by the UNC Media Law Society, Carolina Law’s Committee on Inclusion and Community, and the First Amendment Law Review, will address how the voices of disabled people are included and excluded in today’s public sphere. The panel will also discuss what Disability Rights North Carolina (DRNC), the state’s protection and advocacy organization, is doing to raise public awareness about disability rights.
Panelists include:
- Eleanor Bolton, UNC undergraduate and Co-Chair, Disability Advocates for Carolina
- Corye Dunn, Director of Public Policy, Disability Rights North Carolina
- Victoria (“Tori”) Ekstrand, Associate Professor and Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster Distinguished Professor for Graduate Education, UNC School of Journalism and Media.
- Christine Mendoza, UNC undergraduate
This event is free and open to the public. Students can earn Campus Life Experience (CLE) credit.
This is just one of many events we are hosting on First Amendment Day!
Navigating the Legal Landscape: Student Media and Press Freedom
Freedom Forum Conference Center on the Third Floor of Carroll Hall
1:15 pm - 2:15 pm
Defamation? Invasion of privacy? Intellectual property infringement?! When you’re producing media coverage (e.g., as a news outlet or a podcaster) there are so many legal risks to keep in mind. But don’t fear!
In collaboration with FIRE’s Student Press Freedom Initiative (SPFI), Lindsie Rank, Esq. will moderate a panel on the legal challenges faced by media professionals. In particular this discussion will engage an insider’s perspective on how student journalists deal with legal issues such as defamation, public records, and freedom of the press.
This event is free and open to the public. Students can earn Campus Life Experience (CLE) credit.
This is just one of many events we are hosting on First Amendment Day!
Video from the event is available here:
Health Warning Labels and the First Amendment: How Did We Get Here and What's Next?
Webinar: https://go.unc.edu/warning
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
In collaboration with the Communicating for Health Impact (CHI) Lab, the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy is pleased to offer a webinar titled, “Health Warning Labels and the First Amendment: How Did We Get Here and What’s Next?”
The purpose of the panel is to discuss the intersection of health warnings, product labeling, and the First Amendment. A timely and high-profile example is litigation surrounding the more-than-a-decade effort by the Food and Drug Administration to implement pictorial cigarette pack warnings nationwide in the US. Tobacco companies assert that such warning labels violate the companies’ First Amendment rights against compelled speech.
The webinar will feature panelists with legal and research expertise in this area. Each panelist will have the opportunity to briefly share their work and perspectives on health warnings, product labeling, and the first amendment. The moderator will then pose questions to the panelists and there will be an opportunity for Q&A from the audience.
Panelists:
- Marissa Hall, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Jim Thrasher, PhD, Professor, Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina
- Sarah Sorscher, JD, MPH, Director of Regulatory Affairs, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Washington, DC
- Patti Zettler, JD, John W. Bricker Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University
Event Moderator:
Seth Noar, PhD, James Howard and Hallie McLean Parker Distinguished Professor;
Director, Communicating for Health Impact (CHI) lab, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
This event is open to the public, and the webinar registration is available here: https://go.unc.edu/warning. Webinar ID: 916 3045 2478. Students can earn Campus Life Experience (CLE) credit.
This is just one of many events we are hosting on First Amendment Day!
Video from the event is available here:
Elections, Expression, and Platforms: The 2024 U.S. Presidential Race
Freedom Forum Conference Center on the Third Floor of Carroll Hall
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
The 2024 U.S. Presidential Race is taking shape amid extraordinary changes in media and technology. Debates over platforms, content moderation, censorship, and the First Amendment have reached a fever pitch, especially as generative AI and TikTok have changed the face of campaigning and candidate communications. In collaboration with the UNC Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life (CITAP), this panel will offer a survey of expression-related issues that are shaping the 2024 Presidential Race, including how platforms approach content moderation, electoral mis- and disinformation, the implications of artificial intelligence for politics, and the opportunities and threats these changes pose to U.S. democracy.
Panelists:
- Daniel Kreiss, PhD, Edgar Thomas Cato Distinguished Professor, Hussman School of Journalism and Media | Founding Principal Investigator, CITAP
- Deen Freelon, PhD, Allan Randall Freelon Sr. Professor of Communication, University of Pennsylvania | Founding Principal Investigator & Senior Researcher, CITAP
- Shannon McGregor, PhD, Associate Professor, Hussman School of Journalism and Media | Principal Investigator, CITAP
Event Moderator:
- Alice E. Marwick, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Communication | Founding Principal Investigator, CITAP
This event is open to the public and does not require registration.
Students can earn Campus Life Experience (CLE) credit.
This is just one of many events we are hosting on First Amendment Day!
Video from the event is available here:
Keynote Debate: Regulating Big Tech and the First Amendment
Frank Porter Graham Student Union, The Auditorium
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
In conjunction with the Program for Public Discourse, the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy will co-host an Abbey Speaker Series event on “Regulating Big Tech and the First Amendment.” Professor Mary-Rose Papandrea of the UNC School of Law will moderate a discussion between Professor Eugene Volokh from the UCLA School of Law, and Carrie Goldberg, founder of the victims’ rights law firm C.A. Goldberg, PLCC.
Eugene Volokh is the Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, where he specializes in First Amendment law and in law and technology. He is the author of the textbooks The First Amendment and Related Statutes (7th ed. 2020) and Academic Legal Writing (5th ed. 2016), as well as over 100 law review articles. He is a member of The American Law Institute, and the founder and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a Weblog (independent 2002-2014, hosted at the Washington Post 2014-2017, hosted at Reason from 2017).
Carrie Goldberg is a victims’ rights attorney and founder of victims’ rights law firm C. A. Goldberg, PLLC, which does groundbreaking work nationally fighting for survivors of stalking and sexual violence and representing victims of catastrophic injuries caused by tech products. Among the firm’s better-known clients are Weinstein accusers, Hollywood stars, and a member of Congress. But some of Carrie’s proudest successes are the ones that stay out of the headlines – recoveries for adult survivors of child sexual abuse and restraining orders for victims of stalking. Goldberg is the author of Nobody’s Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs & Trolls.
Event Moderator:
This event is open to the public and does not require registration. Pizza will be served after the event and students can earn Campus Life Experience (CLE) credit.
This is just one of many events we are hosting on First Amendment Day!
Video from the event is available here:
First Amendment Day Trivia Contest (Virtual)
8:00 pm - 9:15 pm
What rights are explicitly protected by the First Amendment? Which U.S. Supreme Court Justice said obscenity was difficult to define, but “I know it when I see it?” When is “speech” unprotected by the First Amendment? When can conduct or clothing be protected by the First Amendment?
Enter our virtual trivia contest and test your knowledge 
of the First Amendment. This event is being organized by doctoral student Evan Ringel, MA, JD. In addition to bragging rights, the winner can earn a giftcard from a local bookstore, Flyleaf Books!
This event is free and open to all members of the UNC-Chapel Hill community.
The Zoom link can be accessed here or at http://tinyurl.com/1atrivia23.
This is just one of many events we are hosting on First Amendment Day!