Speech is More than Speaking 

Speech is More than Speaking

with Professor Doug Edlin, Ph.D.

Saturday, February 14, 2026

2:00 – 3:00 p.m.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Join Doug Edlin, McHugh Professor of American Institutions and Leadership, and Department Chair of Political Science, at Colorado College for this unique opportunity to learn and engage during the 2026 Commemoration of America 250 and Colorado 150.  The United States is often described, for various reasons, as the most speech-protective nation in the world. We will discuss what that means. By thinking about the history, theory, and law of the First Amendment, we will explore the development of free speech protection from matters of public concern, to a marketplace of ideas, to our current preoccupation with individual self-expression. We will also consider what these different understandings of free speech mean for the current political climate around the country.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

Doug joined the Colorado College faculty in 2018. He holds a PhD from Oxford University, a JD from Cornell Law School, an MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA from Hobart College. His teaching and research focus on the courts and the judicial process, constitutional and comparative law, legal and constitutional theory, and the politics of race in the United States. He is the author of Common Law Judging (University of Michigan Press, 2016) and Judges and Unjust Laws (University of Michigan Press, 2008), and the editor of Common Law Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2007). His articles have appeared in the American Journal of Comparative Law, the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Polity, Jurisprudence, and other journals. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Queen Mary University of London, a MacCormick Fellow at the University of Edinburgh School of Law, and a Research Scholar at the University of Melbourne Law School’s Center for Comparative Constitutional Studies.