Clinic News
“Our free speech work necessarily spans the political spectrum — from fighting against book bans that seek to tell libraries what can be on their shelves to fighting against schools that seek to silence students seeking to promote conservative causes. For the First Amendment to mean anything it has to be applied vigorously on behalf of all of us.” – Clinic Director Mark H. Jackson
How Cornell is educating the next generation of citizens about democracy
June 30, 2026 - The Cornell First Amendment Clinic is featured in a Cornell Chronicle article written by Susan Kelley, “How Cornell is educating the next generation of citizens about democracy.” Read the full article here.
Local Journalism in the Age of Trump: A First Amendment Conversation
June 29, 2026 - Clinic director Mark H. Jackson and Heather Murray, associate director of the Clinic and the managing attorney of its Local Journalism Project, led a discussion about their efforts to protect, defend and enable a free and vibrant press on June 24 at the Tompkins County Library in Ithaca, New York. The event was the second […]
How is Local Journalism Doing? Insights from Attorneys and Clients of Cornell’s Local Journalism Project
June 29, 2026 - New York City’s media landscape is changing fast. As legacy outlets shrink and independent, nonprofit newsrooms step in to fill the gaps, a host of unsettled legal questions are coming to the fore — about press freedom, protecting sources, newsgathering rights, and even who counts as a journalist in the first place. Attorneys and clients […]
EDITORIAL: FOIL request sends message to state about transparency
June 22, 2026 - Have you ever sent someone a text message to find out if they’re getting our text messages? Sometimes you send the “test” to find out if there’s something wrong with their text messaging. Other times, you do it to send that person a message that they’re not returning your texts. If you understand that scenario, […]
They Can Only Take Our Stories If We Let Them
June 17, 2026 - Click the link below to read Daniel R. Novack’s article in the ABA’s Human Rights Magazine about freedom of speech and its corollary, freedom to read, which are under assault in America. Novack, an attorney for Penguin Random House, works with the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic on book ban challenges. They Can Only […]
Judge Rules NYPD Cannot Use Sealing Law to Shield Records Related to Officers’ Actions in Fatal Dirt Bike Crash
June 9, 2026 - The New York State Supreme Court ruled that the NYPD must release body-cam and dash-cam footage and other records related to a 2023 incident when officers drove into oncoming traffic and hit and killed a man on a dirt bike, after the Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic sued to obtain the records on behalf […]
‘I wanted to understand what it means to lay claim to American identity’
May 18, 2026 - In an interview with A&S Communications (Cornell University College of Arts & Sciences), Government, History and Robert S. Harrison Scholar Christina MacCorkle talks about her experience as a research assistant for the Cornell First Amendment Clinic. Read the full article here.
Support Local Journalism, Expand the Definition of Fraud, and Guard Against Boomerang Effects
May 15, 2026 - Cornell First Amendment Clinic Advisory Board Member and Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law, Michael C. Dorf, authored “Support Local Journalism, Expand the Definition of Fraud, and Guard Against Boomerang Effects,” for the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University’s blog Reconstructing Free Expression. Read the full article here.
Erie County Legislature flunks transparency test
May 4, 2026 - A May 1, 2026, Investigative Post article quoted Heather Murray, Associate Director of the First Amendment Clinic and Managing Attorney of the Local Journalism Project. Read the full article here: “Erie County Legislature flunks transparency test” Investigative Post, by Geoff Kelly
Prominent First Amendment Legal Scholars File Amicus Asking Supreme Court to Review ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Case
May 1, 2026 - The Cornell Law School First Amendment Clinic filed an amicus brief on April 30, 2026, in D.A. v. Tri County Area Schools, supporting a writ of certiorari before the United States Supreme Court in a case addressing the scope of student-speech rights. Two middle school students, represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and […]