This first event of the Collective Courage Conversations Series explores the current legal landscape of artistic freedom in the US.

This online discussion will explore the current legal landscape of free expression in the arts. Lee Rowland (National Coalition Against Censorship) and Scarlet Kim (American Civil Liberties Union), both First Amendment lawyers and free expression advocates, will cover the state of obscenity law, limitations on NEA grants (and related constitutional challenges), government pressures on non-profits, and more. Lee and Scarlet will present for 30 minutes, followed by a 30 minutes Q&A with the audience.


Participant bios:

Lee Rowland is Executive Director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. She served for over a decade as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, the Brennan Center for Justice, and the New York Civil Liberties Union. She has extensive experience as a litigator, lobbyist, and public speaker. She has served as lead counsel in federal First Amendment cases involving public employee speech rights, the First Amendment rights of community advocates, government regulation of digital speech, and state secrecy surrounding the lethal injection process. She is also a prolific author of amicus briefs and blogs, where she provides insightful analyses of issues such as speech and privacy intersection, student and public employee speech, obscenity, and the Communications Decency Act. She also has represented several NCAC Partner Organizations. Rowland has taught at New York University School of Law and the Hunter College Human Rights Program. She is a Communications and Media Law Committee member at the New York Bar Association. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and Harvard Law School.

Scarlet Kim is a senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, where she works on litigation and advocacy to protect free speech and the right to privacy in the digital age. Scarlet was previously a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, where she focused primarily on litigation and advocacy at the intersection of immigration and national security. Prior to joining the ACLU, Scarlet worked as a legal officer at Privacy International, an associate legal adviser at the International Criminal Court, and a Gruber Fellow in Global Justice at the New York Civil Liberties Union. She also served as a law clerk for the Hon. John Gleeson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.