FORDHAM LAW NEWS — In one of the latest installments of Fordham University’s Speech Acts Series, Fordham Law professors took a closer look at free speech from a legal lens. The event, “The Promise and Limits of Our First Amendment,” held on January 26, was sponsored by the University’s Office of the Provost. The conversation focused on the state action doctrine, a legal rule according to which “almost all constitutional rights apply against the state and not against private persons,” according to moderator Abner Greene, Leonard F. Manning Professor of Law at Fordham Law. The panelists considered defenses for and critiques of the doctrine, and in particular whether the First Amendment tradition has anything to say about private actions to curb harm caused by the speech of other private citizens. “One theme of today’s discussion will be whether the so-called state action doctrine is defensible, or whether we ought to think across the public-private line when we think about constitutional rights,” said Greene. “Or, whether we should adjust how we think about the state action doctrine.”