First Amendment and the Executive Power in the U.S. Part I

Join Professor Grossi's first virtual Master Class (Part I):

This class describes the First Amendment, its scope, and role as a constraint not only on legislative censorship but also on the modern exercise of executive power. The class begins with a brief overview of the traditional First Amendment paradigm, which has focused on statutes, ordinances, and judicially reviewable prohibitions on speech, and then turns to the structural reasons why executive action has historically received less constitutional scrutiny. Students are guided through the rise of the administrative state and the transformation of the presidency into a powerful institutional actor capable of shaping expressive norms through executive orders, agency guidance, funding decisions, and personnel control. The discussion emphasizes how executive influence over speech often operates informally and indirectly, making it harder to detect, challenge, and remedy, yet no less consequential for public discourse. By the end of the class, students should understand why the modern presidency functions as a cultural and ideological gatekeeper and why this development exposes a significant gap in conventional First Amendment analysis.