I was greatly honored yesterday to be selected as one of this year’s recipients of the Samizdat Prize, awarded by RealClearPolitics, a leading news site in the fight against censorship. I will receive the prize at the RCP conference on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida.
I am deeply grateful to receive this recognition for my work in free speech and my new book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.
This is a tough time for the free speech community, but we must not forget that we have allies. Indeed, part of the effort to cancel and censor speakers and writers is to make them feel isolated and alone. It also chills the speech of others who do not want to be hounded or harassed. These events remind us that we are part of a larger movement of men and women who value free speech as a human right.
Thank you again for this recognition.
Congratulations, Professor. I am so grateful for all you folks do. 😊
Congratulations, Professor Turley. You can add the Samizdat Prize to your long list of worthy accomplishments. We are grateful for your efforts in defending our constitutional rights.
Last night, I began rewatching Downfall. I again realized how some obsessive people will never get it, but if we can make MSNBC withdraw to its Führer Bunker, that will be enough. That effort is still ongoing.
What is Downfall?
Michael, it’s the 2004 German movie (Der Untergang [auf Deutsch] or Downfall [in English]) about the last days of Hitler. It’s iconic now. If you don’t mind subtitles, I can highly recommend it, but it’s not for children. Very gritty. It’s the ultimate portrayal of the “bunker mentality” and the threat that it poses.
Diogenes has found his honest man!!
Good point, Hullbobby 😉
Congratulations, Dr. Turley. Well-deserved.
A hearty congratulatory compliment for one of the most worthy proponents of free speech!
The good professor has faced efforts to discredit him from competitors (e.g., Phillip Bump, Laurence Tribe, Marc Elias, Eric Segall, etc.) and other envious professorial critics. (IIRC, none of them were asked to testify in important congressional hearings.) Yet JT’s visibility and global influence continues to grow exponentially.
And, best of all, he continues to take the time to publish a column every day, providing food for thought and discussion–and open to all for commentary.
(p.s. grammar error, should read, “none of them WAS asked…”)
(p.p.s. Can’t they come up with a different title for the award? I had to look up the word, “Samizdat.” It connotes/implies underground/secretive/dissident messaging. That seems a little too severe for JT?)
We can argue about “none was/were”.
“p.s. grammar error,”
Actually, you were right the first time.
In the context you used it, “none” is a plural pronoun — thus needs “were.”
actually, none means no one or not one, requiring a singular verb. Modern usage bends the rule and allows either.
Lin, thanks for pointing out some of the enemies of free speech that I was referencing earlier. They truly want to shut down free speech.
OMG the MAGA discipleship is deep. Phillip Bump, Professor Tribe, who has authored multiple PRESTIGIOUS Constitutional law texts and treatises, Marc Elias, et al are NOT competitiors on this or any other planet with Jonathan Turley, who is a partisan hack. Professor Tribe has taught Constitutional Law at Harvard for 50 years. This is excerpted from “Wikipedia” on Laurence Tribe:
“Among his law students and research assistants while on the faculty at Harvard have been former President Barack Obama (a research assistant for over two years),[20] Chief Justice John Roberts,[21] US Senator Ted Cruz,[21] former D.C. Circuit Chief Judge and Attorney General Merrick Garland,[21] and Associate Justice Elena Kagan.[22] Other notable students of Tribe were U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, Chair of the House Intelligence Committee and lead manager for the first Impeachment of Donald Trump,[23] and Jamie Raskin, lead manager for the second Donald Trump impeachment.[24]
In 1978, Tribe published the first version of what has become one of the core texts on its subject, American Constitutional Law. It has since been updated and expanded a number of times.[25]”.
It is insulting to mention Turley’s name in the same breath as Professor Tribe. Turley discredits himself by associating with Murdoch-owned media and his endless purchased pieces that spin MAGA media tropes as well as disinformation and misinformation. I have yet to see anything Turley ever wrote being favorably criticized in non-MAGA media. His book is NOT a best-seller, nor is he the author of any law school texts or hornbooks.
Congratulations professor! Well earned and deserved!!
Congratulations Professor, you deserver it. There should also be an negative “award” for those that have fought against freedom of speech, people like Joe Biden, the people that forced Twitter, Facebook et al to censor, Scary Poppins and anyone involved with the agencies shutting down speech, the fascist leftists on college campuses banning speakers and sadly many, many more.
Yes, exposure of Anti-Free-Speechers (“Antifrees”), especially powerful, oppressive ones [who may/ may not scream and cuss at you] is appropriate.
Congratulations! So very well deserved. Loved your book and meeting you in Morristown. Wishing you continued success in the efforts to preserve our freedoms!
Jonathan, You have earned the award for your:
Persistence, Dedication, Resolve, Fortitude
As do; Kristin Oren, Hartwell Harrison, and Darren Smith share in this accolade.
Kudos JT & Co.
Earned!!!! Between you, Alex Berenson, Dan Bongino and DJT, the exposure of the anti-free speech Democratic National Communists and the scripted propaganda MSM the destruction of Free Speech America would not be front and center.
But don’t forget Prof Biden is deeply worried about the survival of democracy and Big Tech-Govt suppression.
Congratulations, Professor. The best column I have ever read and love the interaction between the readers, even the trolls. Especially them since one must practice the skills in defending free speech. Professor, you are a gift to legal profession and an asset to the nation. Keep it up. A day without your regular column is a lost day .
Congratulations Professor Turley. Over the years reading your blog and watching your TV hits, you have ways remained steadfast to the tenants of free speech. You have always reminded us that free speech is an absolute in a free society. It’s easy for many to want to block speech they do not agree with. I may not agree with everything people say but my time in the army was spent defending their rights to say it.
Well deserved, Professor.
Congrats. I plan on reading your book. I’m sure it’s well thought-out and informative.
Congratulations.
An award based on achievement. That’s refreshing.
Congratulations Professor. Keep up the good fight.
“An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” (T. Jefferson)
Yes, and an ignorant Opposition, such as “Hate Speech is not Protected” Democrats, is a ticking bomb of destruction .
The “free speech” cause isn’t nearly as simple as facing down closed-minded progressive zealots.
The “cause” can be turned upside down, and perverted to the core:
• Hamas terrorists claiming a free speech right to opinion-shape American youth
• The CCP fighting a borderless infowarfare to slowly destroy American “can do” by hypnotizing our youth with addictive social media
• Hard-core, violent, misogynistic porn producers claiming a free speech right to their adult audiences even if kids are unintentionally drawn in
• Devious, conniving political infowarfare shops pushing out well-crafted falsehoods to tilt elections, originating from both foreign enemies and our own CIA retirees
• Inauthenticity (a speaker’s concealment of true motive and even identity) taken up tactically to dupe the public
• Doxxing, cancelling, drowning out other speakers (extreme incivility) are claimed as “protected speech”
• Ad-hominem forms of argument being used to shut down meritocratic debate
• Butchery of commonly-understood English language meanings to euphemize and sloganeer, in order to manipulate thinking patterns in a desired direction
As you can see, there are increasingly subtle forms of manipulative speech that seek to circumvent open-minded, dispassionate exploration of ideas toward problem-solving. And many not at all subtle, but obnoxiously militant.
The hard work of defining the limits of free speech is upon us, as cases like TikTok and age verification for porn websites wend their way through the courts. All freedom comes with attached responsibilities in an orderly, mentally-buoyant, free society. Let go of speech responsibilities of authenticity, civility and candor, and the public square descends into a hyper-emotional battleground of manipulations, deceitful exaggerations, conspiracy theories, crafty propaganda campaigns, and uktimately…..erosion of the trust and confidence required to solve gnarly, complex problems.
Cultural and civic decline are the consequences of either too-loose or too-tight a definition of free speech. It requires finding and keeping a sweet spot between two dysfunctional bookends.
Well deserved. Great book.
Well deserved. Congrats. I’m looking forward to reading your book.
The mechanism you are looking for is called discrimination. The culture needs to discriminate against that which does not comport with its well-being. It is not a legislative process. It is a process that has been suppressed by nitwits peddling the misguided idea that all cultures are equal and good.
Whew, good one. I have (library) Prof Turley’s new book, andI I am eager to read how he and Supreme Court reconcile TikTok legislation and First Amendment.
Congratulations Professor! Kind of sad that an award even has to exist for defending the 1st amendment.
Eternal vigilance….
Well deserved! Congratulations Professor T.
Great to learn of this award to you. Congratulations! James Madison would be pleased.
Well done! Congratulations!
Congratulations Mr. Turley!!! You’re the “Ace of the Base.”