A welcome reception with access to the National Constitution Center’s new First Amendment gallery will take place from 4–5:15 p.m. The program will directly follow from 5:30–8 p.m.
The National Constitution Center, in partnership with a coalition of leading free speech organizations, is convening a National First Amendment Summit to discuss the increasing threats to freedom of expression and to celebrate the opening of the Center’s new First Amendment gallery. To lead off the event, author and free-speech advocate Salman Rushdie will engage in a virtual keynote conversation with Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America about the importance of free speech in a democratic society and the forces of censorship that imperil its existence. After Salman Rushdie’s keynote conversation, the summit will feature a series of panels with America’s leading First Amendment thinkers. In-person summit participants include First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams, Bruce Brown of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Will Creeley of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, Stephen Solomon of NYU’s First Amendment Watch, and leading scholars Akhil Reed Amar, Jeannie Suk Gersen, Lyrissa Barnett Lidsky, Jacob Mchangama, and Nadine Strossen.
This program is presented in partnership with the Freedom Forum, FIRE, the First Amendment Watch at NYU, PEN America, and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.