Protest, Press, and the Pews: First Amendment Rights in Contemporary America
Friday, October 16, 2026
9:00 – 9:45 a.m. EST | check-in
9:45 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. EST | program
In-person and on Zoom
Fordham Law School
Costantino Room, Second Floor
150 West 62nd Street
New York, NY 10023
CLE credit will be available.
About the Program
What happens when the government shows up at a protest with zip ties and a deportation van? When a journalist is detained for filming what everyone else can see? When religious liberty claims start winning cases that free speech claims used to lose?
These are not hypotheticals. The Fordham Urban Law Journal’s 2026 Cooper-Walsh Colloquium brings together constitutional scholars and frontline practitioners to take stock of what the First Amendment actually protects today — and for whom. Across four panels, the colloquium examines public protest and assembly, the rights of press and civilian observers, permit and public space regulation, and the Supreme Court’s expanding religious liberty jurisprudence. The doctrine matters, and so does who it reaches.
Program Agenda
9:00 – 9:45 a.m. | Check-in and Breakfast
9:45 – 10:00 a.m. | Opening Remarks
10:00 – 11:30 a.m. | Panel 1: The First Amendment at the Breaking Point — Protest, Assembly, and the Limits of Free-Speech Doctrine
(1.5 CLE credits)
- Molly Biklen, Legal Director, New York Civil Liberties Union
- Nelson Tebbe, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; Jane M.G. Foster Professor of Law, Cornell Law School
- Amber Alexia Baylor, Clinical Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
- Ethan J. Leib (Moderator), John D. Calamari Distinguished Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
11:30 – 11:40 a.m. | Break
11:40 a.m. – 1:10 p.m. | Panel 2: The Price of Speaking: Policing, employment, and Government Retaliation
(1.5 CLE credits)
- Randolph McLaughlin, Professor of Law, Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University
- Gideon Oliver, Former President, National Lawyers Guild
- Emerson Sykes, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project
- Tanya K. Hernández (Moderator), Archibald R. Murray Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
1:10 – 1:45 p.m. | Lunch
1:45 – 3:15 p.m. | Panel 3: Rights of the Press and Legal Observers
(1.5 CLE credits)
- Robert Balin, Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine
- Mickey Osterreicher, General Counsel, National Press Photographers Association
- David McGraw, Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, The New York Times General Counsel
- Matthew L. Schaffer (Moderator), Adjunct Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
3:25 – 4:55 p.m. | Panel 4: Expansion of Religious Rights
(1.5 CLE Credits)
- Alex J. Luchenitser, Associate Vice President & Associate Legal Director, Americans United for Separation of Church and state
- Elizabeth Reiner Platt, Director, The Law, Rights & Religion Project
- Bradley Girard, Senior Counsel, Democracy Forward
- Moderator TBD
4:55 – 5:00 p.m. | Closing Remarks
Urban Unflappability: How Local Law can Withstand a Hostile Federal Government
Friday, October 17, 2025
9:00 – 9:45 a.m. EST | check-in
9:45 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. EST | program
In-person and on Zoom
Fordham Law School
Costantino Room, Second Floor
150 West 62nd Street
New York, NY 10023
CLE credit will be available.
About the Program
Cities are facing unprecedented negative attention from the federal government, and the two levels of government have policies that are often in intense tension with one another. In this colloquium, we will explore urban areas’ ability to pushback against federal initiatives that are contrary to their own values. Specifically, we will compare the federal government’s powers with local governments’ power and their respective reach, the anti-commandeering doctrine, and the spending clause as ways in which urban ideals are protected from the federal government and how these doctrines affect particular urban policies.
2023 Cooper-Walsh Colloquium
Public Health, History &
the Future of Gun Regulation after Bruen
Friday, October 13, 2023
Fordham University School of Law
Skadden Conference Center (Live broadcast on Zoom)
About the Program
The Fordham Urban Law Journal, Northwell Health Center for Gun Violence Prevention, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Gun Violence Solutions are thrilled to announce the 2023 Cooper-Walsh Colloquium on Public Health, History, and the Future of Gun Regulation After Bruen. This event will bring together a diverse group of scholars of law, public health policy, and history to discuss the future of firearms regulation. Speakers include Saul Cornell — Fordham University’s Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History, prize-winning author, and one of the nation’s leading authorities on early American constitutional thought. We hope to see you there!
Program Agenda
9:15 – 10:00 a.m. | Check-in and Breakfast
10:00 – 10:15 a.m. | Opening Remarks
- Dean Matthew Diller, Dean and Paul Fuller Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
10:15 – 11:15 a.m. | Bruen Introduction | 1.0 CLE credit
- Michael Ulrich, Assistant Professor of Health Law, Ethics, & Human Rights at Boston University’s School of Public Health and School of Law
- Nicholas Johnson, Professor of Law at Fordham University School of Law
- Jacob Charles, Associate Professor of Law at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law
- Abner Greene (moderator), Leonard F. Manning Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
11:15 – 11:20 a.m. | Break
11:20 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Domestic Violence Protective Orders Firearms Prohibitions | 1.0 CLE credit
- Laura Edwards, Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor in the History of American Law and Liberty; Professor of History at Princeton University (recorded remarks)
- April Zeoli, Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy, Policy Core Director, Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention at University of Michigan
- Kelly Roskam, Director of Law and Policy Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Lisa Geller, Senior Advisor for Implementation at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Tim Carey (moderator), Law & Policy Advisor at Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Bloomberg School of Public Health
12:30 – 1:15 p.m. | Lunch
1:15 – 2:15 p.m. | Extreme Risk Protection Orders | 1.0 CLE credit
- Shannon Frattaroli, Professor and Core Faculty Member at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Gun Violence Solutions
- Andrew Willinger, Executive Director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law
- Saul Cornell, Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History at Fordham University
- Alexandra Trinkoff (moderator), Deputy General Counsel & Vice President at Northwell Health
2:15 – 3:30 p.m. | Age Prohibitions | 1.0 CLE credit
- Robert Spitzer, Adjunct Professor, College of William and Mary School of Law, Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus, Political Science Department at SUNY Cortland
- Cassandra Crifasi, Co-Director of Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Alexander McCourt, Director of Legal Research at Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Megan Walsh, Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Gun Violence Prevention Law Clinic at Minnesota Law
- Deborah Denno (moderator), Arthur A. McGivney Professor of Law at Fordham Law School, Founding Director, Neuroscience and Law Center
3:30 – 3:35 p.m. | Break
3:35 – 4:45 p.m. | Moving Forward After Bruen | 1.0 CLE credit
- Eric Ruben, Associate Professor at the SMU Dedman School of Law
- Eric Segall, Kathy and Lawrence Ashe Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law
- Joshua Aiken, J.D./Ph.D., Candidate in History and African-American Studies at Yale / Anti-Carceral Advocate
- Daniel Webster, Bloomberg Professor of American Health and Distinguished Scholar, Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions
- Susan Block-Lieb (moderator), Cooper Family Chair in Urban Legal Issues, Fordham Law School
4:45 – 5:00 p.m. | Closing Remarks
