37th Annual Silha Lecture: "Inherit the WHAT? Banning Books in 2022"

Inherit the What?  Banning Books in 2022

Inherit the Wind immortalized the Scopes “monkey trial” of 1925, one of the first to be called “the trial of the century.” That case involved Tennessee’s ban on teaching the theory of evolution in public schools – particularly a biology textbook that accepted it as established fact.
 
But contrary to the assumption that book bans are relics of the distant past, they have enjoyed a banner year in 2022 as the broader culture war sparks fierce battles across the country over purging books from schools, libraries, and even bookstores.

What are the First Amendment implications of these hotly contested battles? And how do we, as a society, maintain a culture of free expression in highly polarized times?

This year’s Silha Lecturer is Robert Corn-Revere, a First Amendment expert and partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in Washington, D.C., whose career as a free speech advocate has spanned nearly forty years.  His latest book, The Mind of the Censor and the Eye of the Beholder – The First Amendment and the Censor’s Dilemma, was released by Cambridge University Press at the end of 2021. 

This event is free and open to the public; no registration is required to attend the live event.  If you would prefer to attend via Zoom, you may register here.

For more about this event, click on any of the following links:
Watch a video of the 37th Annual Silha Lecture, "Inherit the What?  Banning Books in 2022"
View a slideshow of the 2022 Silha Lecture here.  Click on each slide to advance through the slideshow.
Read a Silha Bulletin story promoting the 37th Annual Silha Lecture here.
Read a Silha Bulletin story following the 37th Annual Silha Lecture here.