Cathy Gellis

Jan 13, 2025 | techdirt.com | Cathy Gellis

On Friday I attended the oral argument in the TikTok ban case in person, seated in the second row behind the table where the government’s lawyers were sitting, and only about 15-20 feet away from the justices themselves. There’s something kind of profound about being a normal human distance from them, instead of just in the reach of their radiated power. Argument was scheduled for two hours but it ran much longer.

Jan 8, 2025 | techdirt.com | Cathy Gellis

A lot of people dunked on the amicus brief Donald Trump filed at the Supreme Court in the constitutional challenge of the law effectively banning TikTok. And there is plenty that is dunkable about it, especially in his tone of entitlement. Trump is no sincere defender of the First Amendment and its critical protections for speech rights. Nor is he really interested in any principled defense of TikTok. As it is, he filed in support of neither party because what he’s really playing for is time.

Jan 7, 2025 | techdirt.com | Cathy Gellis

It seems unfathomable that we’re even here. The First Amendment is one of our clearer constitutional provisions. “Make no law,” it says, “abridging the freedom of speech.” And yet, with the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” Congress has done exactly that, effectively banning a platform helping millions of Americans speak.

Nov 15, 2024 | techdirt.com | Cathy Gellis

For better or worse, jawboning has been a hot topic recently, and it’s unlikely that interest will fade any time soon. Jawboning, in broad strokes, is when the government pressures a third party to make that third party chill the speech of another instead of going after the speech directly.

Nov 4, 2024 | techdirt.com | Cathy Gellis

I have no particular interest in the British royal family, but nevertheless I’ll be forever grateful to Princess Kate for telling the world about her cancer. It was probably not easy, nor likely her preference, to be so public at such a difficult moment. But whether she knows it or not, by sharing her story she made it much easier for other cancer patients to face their own moments.