A mother sues Character.AI, claiming that a conversation between her teenage son and a Character.AI chatbot led him to commit suicide. A conservative activist sues Meta, claiming that its AI-generated false accusations about him. Jane Bambauer and Eugene Volokh analyze these cases, and more broadly, discuss lawsuits against AI companies, and possible First Amendment defenses to those lawsuits.

Recorded on May 6, 2025.

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss the Administration’s freezing of grants to Harvard, and Harvard’s lawsuit challenging the freeze.

The Trump Administration has announced that it was freezing grants to Harvard, and demanding that Harvard change many of its policies and practices in order to get back in the Administration’s good graces. President Trump has also suggested that Harvard might lose its tax-exempt status for “pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness.’” Would such a cutoff of funding or tax exemption benefits violate the First Amendment? Jane and Eugene dig deep into that.

Recorded on April 22, 2025.

Eugene Volokh and Jane Bambauer discuss President Trump’s Executive Orders that target major law firms (such as WilmerHale and Jenner & Block).

The orders target the firms for retaliation based largely on their past support of various left-wing legal causes. Do those Orders violate the firms’ (and their clients’) Free Speech Clause or Petition Clause rights? Might they also violate the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause (in civil cases) and the Sixth Amendment right to counsel (in criminal cases)?

Recorded on March 31, 2025.