FOR RELEASE: December 15, 2025
Contact: Richard T. Kaplar
The Media Institute
703-506-8030
Vienna, Va., December 15, 2025 – A new book by Stuart N. Brotman examines the unprecedented threats facing the First Amendment today and demonstrates that even in highly polarized times, common ground is still possible when we return to America’s core principles.
Free Expression Under Fire: Defending Free Speech and Free Press Across the Political Spectrum takes a unique nonpartisan approach, providing insider insights into how campus speech policies backfire, why tech platforms make controversial content decisions, and what happens when governments attempt to regulate on-air and online expression.
Brotman, regarded as America’s leading public scholar on free expression, takes complex constitutional issues out of academic ivory towers and makes them accessible to everyday Americans. He shows how Americans from every background – U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Joe Rogan and Ben Shapiro; Jimmy Kimmel and Meryl Streep – are all connected by a deep commitment to our nation’s foundational ideals.
Brotman, who is The Media Institute’s Distinguished Senior Fellow and Digital Media Laureate, has served on the faculties of major universities at home and abroad and on legal teams in notable Supreme Court cases. He is a member of the Institute’s First Amendment Advisory Council and is involved in the Institute’s major initiative “The Madison Project: Free Speech and Press in American Democracy.”
Free Expression Under Fire reveals why protecting constitutional rights requires more than legal victories – it demands rebuilding a durable free expression culture that values open debate and reporting.
Legendary First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams calls Free Expression Under Fire “a major contribution to understanding the most quoted but least understood words of our Constitution.”
From the landmark Pentagon Papers case to contemporary social media controversies, from campus free speech conflicts to global internet freedom battles, Brotman shows how historical lessons can guide us through current challenges. As America 250 celebrations begin, Brotman reminds us why free expression isn’t just about protecting rights – it’s about safeguarding the democratic experiment itself for future generations.
Free Expression Under Fire is available Dec. 15, 2025, as an E-book and will be available Jan. 13, 2026, as a trade paperback. It is available here or from major booksellers.
The Media Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization specializing in communications policy and the First Amendment. Visit the Institute at www.mediainstitute.org.
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