PUNISH THE BAD DECISION, NOT THE TOOL. New laws regulating AI in hiring and health care may sound sensible. But when government singles out AI for warnings, audits, and design mandates, it risks burdening protected speech and information gathering.

CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLES ARE EASY UNTIL THEY RESTRAIN YOUR SIDE. Sarah Isgur joins Jeffrey Rosen on the Blessings of Liberty podcast to explain why the Supreme Court’s tariffs ruling was about far more than Trump, Biden, or partisan advantage.

BRITAIN MAY BE COMING FOR VPNs NEXT: With new age restrictions already in place, officials are now promising a July update on possible VPN limits, all in the name of keeping children safe online. Plus, FIRE’s victory against the “Stop WOKE Act,” my latest in The Washington Post, and more!

KEN BURNS ON AMERICA AT 250, WITHOUT THE HAGIOGRAPHY OR THE DESPAIR: The American story has never been tidy enough for slogans, and it has never been so broken that the only honest response is to give up on the experiment.

AI IS FREE SPEECH’S NEXT FRONTIER, OF COURSE POLITICIANS ARE REACHING FOR THE LEASH. Tyler Tone lays out why FIRE is fighting AI laws that could turn a tool for knowledge into a tool for political control.

AMERICA WAS NOT BORN INEVITABLE: Fifty-six men, divided by faith, class, region, interest, and conscience, signed their names to an idea that could have cost them everything.

THE GLOBAL CENSORSHIP LAB IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS: While America recovers from its 250th birthday party, other governments are providing bracing reminders that “online safety,” “public order,” and “hate speech” can become very convenient labels for censorship.

AMERICA AT 250, STILL ARGUING ABOUT THE THINGS THAT MADE IT WORTH CELEBRATING: The fireworks have faded, the confetti is being swept from the floor, and America is back to doing what it has always done best and worst: arguing, loudly, about liberty.

THOMAS PAINE, THE FOUNDER WHO MADE POLITE PEOPLE NERVOUS: As America approaches 250, Matt Harwood argues that Paine is the Founding Father worth celebrating, without squinting too hard.

FREE SPEECH IS NOT A LOYALTY PROGRAM: Too many Americans defend the First Amendment for friends and rediscover “limits” for enemies, which is why I joined Mónica Guzmán on A Braver Way to talk about how rare free speech culture is, and why America would be foolish to let it go.

A COUNTRY DOESN’T MAKE IT 250 YEARS BECAUSE EVERYONE AGREES. America made it this far because people were free to disagree, argue, offend, persuade, and govern themselves, which is exactly the spirit FIRE is bringing to Soapbox in Philadelphia this November.

GOVERNMENT WANTS TO REGULATE AI SPEECH. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? As Tyler Tone explains, AI models are shaped by human choices, and as AI becomes a primary interface for human knowledge, letting the state control what models may say risks creating a government chokepoint between citizens and the human record

THIS WEEK IN “NO, YOU DON’T GET TO CENSOR THAT”: The future of AI speech, campus free speech fights, First Amendment absurdities, and the latest victories (and setbacks) for free expression.

THE MOST IMPORTANT FREE SPEECH FIGHT SINCE THE BIRTH OF THE INTERNET? That’s Nico Perrino’s case for why the coming battles over AI and social media will determine whether the First Amendment survives the digital age.

IDA B. WELLS HAD A SPINE OF STEEL. Wells understood that ordered liberty depends on citizens brave enough to tell the truth, even when the mob demands silence.

FREE SPEECH DOES NOT EXPIRE WHEN TECHNOLOGY CHANGES. Nico Perrino explains why social media, AI, and age verification are tests of whether the First Amendment still restrains government where speech actually happens.

THE FIRST AMENDMENT IS NOT A FAIR-WEATHER PRINCIPLE. The push to control social media and AI in the name of safety is a test of whether we still believe the government should be restrained when speech is messy, new, unpopular, or inconvenient.

NEW: FIRE EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT NICO PERRINO ON THE MOST IMPORTANT FREE SPEECH FIGHT SINCE THE BIRTH OF THE INTERNET: The fight over social media and AI is really a fight over whether free speech will survive the digital age.

FREE SPEECH BELONGS TO EVERYONE OR IT BELONGS TO NO ONE. In my TED Talk, I dive into this concept through four truths everyone should understand about free speech.

THE STATE OF FREE SPEECH IN EUROPE IS EVEN WORSE THAN I THOUGHT. Once a country gets comfortable treating offensive memes, private texts, and unfashionable opinions as police matters, identity verification stops looking like safety infrastructure and starts looking like a searchable database for the next speech crime.

THE UK’S FREE SPEECH BACKSLIDE CONTINUES. Britain’s “under-16” social media ban sounds like child protection, but in practice it could mean age checks for everyone, including adults who want to speak anonymously online.

THIS WEEK IN “THAT’S NOT HOW THE FIRST AMENDMENT WORKS”: AI panic, New York’s warning-label fever, school-board speech policing, FIRE victory in Wisconsin, & Saul Goodman returns!

BRITS MAY SOON SAY GOODBYE TO AN ANONYMOUS INTERNET: The UK’s teen social media ban is being sold as child protection, but age checks for kids often mean ID checks for everyone. Funny how “online safety” keeps turning into a surveillance architecture.

THE PEOPLE COME BEFORE THE GOVERNMENT. That’s the point of the First Amendment. Citizens think, speak, publish, gather, and petition and the government listens, not the other way around. The latest Blessings Of Liberty podcast dives into that idea.

THE TRUTH NEEDS THE WEIRDOS. Not because the lizard-people-under-the-Denver-airport theory is right. Because knowing who believes it is useful.