Friday, September 19, 2025
LWV-Downeast
We'll talk about free speech, chilled speech, and self-censorship -- historically in the U.S. and currently. We've been producing this radio show for over 20 years, and this is the first time that invited guests have been afraid to come on the radio and criticize the federal government. This is not normal. This will be the sixth program in our series on the constitutional crisis.
Special Guests
- Molly Curren Rowles, Executive Director, ACLU Maine
- Timothy Zick, Robert & Elizabeth Scott Research Professor and John Marshall Professor of Government and Citizenship, William and Mary Law School
Learn more about this topic:
- Trump 2.0: Executive Power and the First Amendment | First Amendment Watch, Timothy Zick, September 2025
- Opinion | I Watched It Happen in Hungary. Now It’s Happening Here. | The New York Times, David Pressman, July 2025
- Terms of Engagement – Censorship by Settlement? | Ash Center, July 2025
- Court Agrees Trump Administration’s ICC Sanctions Likely Violate Advocates’ First Amendment Rights | American Civil Liberties Union, July 2025
- Self-censorship and the ‘spiral of silence’: Why Americans are less likely to publicly voice their opinions on political issues | The Conversation, James L. Gibson, June 2025
- When Silence Speaks Volumes | The New York Times, Michael S. Schmidt, June 2025
- Chilling Effect | The First Amendment Encyclopedia, Frank Askin, June 2025
- 3 ways the government can silence opinions it disagrees with, without using censorship, Gregory P. Magarian, June 2025
- Freedom of speech is shifting under the Trump administration. We're exploring how | NPR, April 2025
- Americans are beginning to fear dissent. That’s exactly what Trump wants | Robert Reich | The Guardian, March 2025
- Timothy Zick’s ‘Executive Watch’: Introduction – First Amendment News 457 | The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, February 2025
- The US Constitution was not made to protect against Trump | Politics | Al Jazeera, February 2025
- Trump on Surveillance, Protest, and Free Speech | American Civil Liberties Union, July 2024
- The Establishment Clause and the Chilling Effect | Harvard Law Review, February 2020
- Chilling Effect Overview | The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, David L. Hudson, Jr.
Tune into the broadcast at 4:00 p.m., Friday, September 19, on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, streaming at weru.org. If you miss the broadcast, check back here for the audio archive. Subscribe to our podcast: iTunes | Spotify | Android.