Democracy Forum 9/19/25: Constitutional Crisis: The Penalties for Free Speech

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of free speech and self-censorship in the context of a constitutional crisis.

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine Production Assistance: Linda Washburn, Joel Mann Democracy Forum: Participatory Democracy, encouraging citizens to take an active role in government and politics. This month: We’ll talk about free speech, chilled speech, and self-censorship — historically in the U.S. and currently. We’ve been producing this radio show for over 20 years, and this is the first time that invited guests have been afraid to come on the radio and criticize the federal government. This is not normal. This will be the sixth program in our series on the constitutional crisis. Guest/s: Molly Curren Rowles, Executive Director, ACLU Maine. Timothy Zick, Robert & Elizabeth Scott Research Professor and John Marshall Professor of Government and Citizenship, William and Mary Law School. To learn Amore about this topic: Visit LWVME.org About the host: Ann Luther currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. The post Democracy Forum 9/19/25: Constitutional Crisis: The Penalties for Free Speech first…

People in this episode

Host: Ann Luther

Guests: Molly Curren Rowles, Timothy Zick

Topics covered

• free speech
• chilled speech
• self-censorship
• constitutional crisis

Keywords

• ACLU
• League of Women Voters
• government criticism

Mentioned in this episode

Products: ACLU

Books & works: Democracy Forum 9/19/25

Places: U.S.

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