Legal Conference on Freedom of Speech and Religion: Part 1

Introduction

Last Tuesday and Wednesday I attended the International Legal Conference on Freedom of Speech and Religion at Congressional Auditorium at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, D.C., sponsored by (among others) the International Free Press Society.

Our hostess for the event was Ann Fishman, the founder and director of Liberty Legal Project International, who did a superb job of corralling well-informed and articulate experts as speakers and panel participants.

This was not your ordinary run-of-the-mill conservative conference, and the amount of substantive material was so extensive that I can’t do it justice in a single post. So I’ll just give an overview here, listing the panels and the speakers, and then in subsequent posts break out the material based on the general topic.

The panel discussions were as follows:

		Tuesday October 27th, Morning
1.		Comparative Survey of the Substantive Law Establishing Free Speech Moderator: Diana West Panelists: David Harris, Elizabeth Samson, Morten Messerschmidt, Dr. Karin Karlekar, and Ellis Washington.
2.		Technology, Speech, and the New Media Outlet Moderator: Ann Fishman Panelists: Bob Corn-Revere, Dr. Karin Karlekar, David Sobel, and Pamela Geller
3.		Limitations on Free Speech Moderator: Frank Gaffney Panelists: David Yerushalmi, Robert Muise, Diana West, David Harris, and Morten Messerschmidt
		Tuesday October 27th, Afternoon
1.		Censorship of the Media via the Fairness Doctrine Moderator: Joyce Kaufman Panelists: Bob Corn-Revere and Robert Muise
2.		The Rifqa Bary Case Moderator: Pamela Geller Panelists: Robert Spencer and Andrew Bostom
		Wednesday October 28th, Morning
1.		Comparative Survey of Freedom of Religion Under the Law Moderator: Frank Gaffney Panelists: William Wagner, Horatio Mihet, Andrea Williams, Elizabeth Samson, and Sam Solomon
2.		Limitations on Freedom of Religion Moderator: Frank Gaffney Panelists: Robert Muise, David Yerushalmi, Andrea Williams, Horatio Mihet, and William Wagner
		Wednesday October 28th, Afternoon
1.		Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) & Libel Tourism Moderator: Brooke Goldstein Panelists: Morten Messerschmidt, Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, Dr. Paul Williams, Joe Sharkey, David Harris, and Adam Hasner
2.		Tough Questions Moderator: Lars Hedegaard Panelists: Brooke Goldstein, William Wagner, Sam Solomon, Andrea Williams, and David Yerushalmi

Speakers
- - - - - - - - -

• Rep. Paul Brown (R-GA)
  
• Morten Messerschmidt, MEP (Danskfolkeparti)
  
• Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)
  
• Malcolm Everard MacLaren Pearson, Baron Pearson of Rannoch (Member of the House of Lords for UKIP)
  
• Special Video Presentation by Dr. Michael Savage
  
• Ellis Washington (Michael Savage’s official biographer)
  
• Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)
  
• Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL)
  
• Diana West (Author of Death of the Grownup)
  
• Roger Hedgecock (Talk radio host, Dan Diego)

Starting tomorrow, I’ll survey some of the material that was covered, breaking it down somewhat arbitrarily into the following topics:

1.		Creeping sharia within the Western democracies
2.		The erosion of free speech: intimidation, legal action, self-censorship, “the chilling effect”, political correctness, and the current assault on the First Amendment
3.		Lawfare and libel tourism
4.		The blurring of boundaries: hate speech, defamation, sedition, and incitement
5.		Aggressive secularization and the abuse of the Establishment Clause
6.		The weaponizing of human rights principles against the West by the OIC, the EU, and the UN to suppress any criticism of Islam
7.		An overview of Canada and Europe

So stay tuned.