Another Report from AMT/EITC… A Late Addition: Nonprofits’ Role in Protecting and/or Promoting Speech

Hi all – a quick hit for you all late on this Wednesday night.   As you might recall, I did a number of posts back at the end of May/beginning of June reporting on the charitable presentations at the AMT/EITC scholarship conference held at the beginning of the summer.   You can find those reports here, and here, and here.

My May/June blogging week ended, and I had one more report to go… so in the category of “better late than never,” I do want to talk about Miranda Perry Fleisher’s presentation, tentatively titled A Space for Dissent, because I think it is so critical at this moment in time.   In it, she explores the role of the nonprofit community in protecting and promoting speech, especially when that speech is challenging to the community and/or establishment (to the extent that those are different things.)   Her hope is to address these issues looking critically and thoughtfully at “long-standing First Amendment principles, the value of free speech in a democracy, and the role of the non-profit sector as a forum for dissent.”   I won’t give away the ending … no spoilers here on the Nonprofit Law Prof Blog.   So, keep an eye out for a law review near you!

In all seriousness… at the time, I remember thinking that this is an incredibly important project, at a time when nonprofits are getting called before Congress!!! to discuss their own speech and the speech that happens around them. The world events, international and domestic, that have occurred since my first few postings about the conference just reinforce my thinking of how important Miranda’s project will be.

Anticipatorily, eww