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Jameel Jaffer

@jameeljaffer.bsky.social
39K followers 1K following 1.9K posts

Director, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University; Exec Editor, Just Security; former ACLU. knightcolumbia.org.

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 18h
I should have noted that Arvind wrote this paper with @sayash.bsky.social!
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 20h
"For every poltroon in high places, thousands of ordinary citizens have raised their heads above the parapet." Yes, and this is worth remembering, if only as an inspiration to the rest of us. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/14/b...
nytimes.com
Why Did These Powerful People Kowtow to Donald Trump?
In “Profiles in Cowardice,” Jacob Weisberg offers a grim twist on John F. Kennedy’s collection of heroic biographies.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 22h
Here's the original essay, which is one of the most-read essays we've published at @knightcolumbia.org over the past decade. knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a...
knightcolumbia.org
AI as Normal Technology
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 22h
This is a great conversation between computer scientist and former @knightcolumbia.org visiting scholar Arvind Narayanan (@randomwalker.bsky.social) and @ezraklein.bsky.social about Arvind's @knightcolumbia.org essay, "AI as Normal Technology." www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Intelligence Isn’t Power
The computer scientist Arvind Narayanan explains that just because A.I. is intelligent doesn’t necessarily mean it’s powerful.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Updated:
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
I really hope the NYT is going to update this story because it does readers a disservice to report this event without mentioning Trump’s long history of deranged and racist attacks on Somali-Americans and on Ilhan Omar in particular. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/12/u...
nytimes.com
Federal Agents Search Home of Rep. Ilhan Omar
The search takes place within the 60-day window of the midterm elections, when the Justice Department has historically avoided such investigative steps related to political candidates.
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
I do not think an exec branch led by a man who thinks he is entitled to treat federal agents as an arm of his firm, refers to Somali Americans as “garbage” and has said racist things specifically about Omar is capable of neutrally applying the law to her, to put it mildly apnews.com/article/ilha...
apnews.com
Federal agents search Rep. Ilhan Omar's home as part of a criminal investigation, AP sources say
Federal agents have searched Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home as part of a criminal investigation. That's according to people familiar with the matter.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Oct 17 www.nokings.org
nokings.org
No Kings
For more than a year, millions of people have come together to send a clear message: in America, we have no kings. Power doesn't belong to billionaires, strongmen, or politicians who think they're abo...
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Three days: sanctioning the international criminal court, announcing that the firing-squad execution of NH will be live-streamed, investigating the WH press on bogus antitrust charges, searching IO’s home on transparently pretextual immigration charges, financing Putin, jettisoning Zelensky.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
What was once a gradual slide into autocracy has become something like free-fall. We should all be in the streets. www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
reuters.com
US launches immigration raid of Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar's home, Fox News reports
US authorities conducted a predawn raid Monday on the Washington-area home ​of Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar in ‌a probe of the Somali-born lawmaker's immigration paperwork, Fox News Digital re...
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Reposted by Jameel Jaffer
Jamal Greene @jamalgreene.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
A massive, and massively underrated, threat to a functioning democracy. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/10/11/u...
nytimes.com
Threats of Political Violence Have America’s Elected Officials Living in Fear (Gift Article)
A Times investigation has found that violent threats have become a new normal among public officials, reshaped private lives, cost millions in security and pushed people out of office.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Glad that Judge Kelly extended the TRO, but a ruling that allowed Trump to expel news orgs for publishing classified info would allow him to expel any news org whose reporting he didn’t like. Every major news org publishes classified info, and many do it every day. www.cnn.com/2026/10/08/p...
cnn.com
Live updates: Judge hears CNN, MS NOW and Politico’s request on Trump’s press ban | CNN Politics
A federal judge is hearing arguments on the request by CNN, MS NOW and Politico to extend his earlier order restoring the outlets’ access to the White House amid President Donald Trump’s attempt to ba...
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
All that money and still can’t afford a spine
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
If you know talented law students who would be interested in spending a summer working on the most important and interesting First Amendment cases, please send them our way! knightcolumbia.org/page/summer-...
knightcolumbia.org
| Knight First Amendment Institute
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/arti...
ctvnews.ca
Alberta premier unaware of reported separatist meetings with U.S. strategists
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s office is distancing itself from one of her party presidents who met in Calgary with U.S. Republican strategists looking to assist the province’s separation movement.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Okay but the US government is in fact engaged in foreign information manipulation and interference, including in Canada, even if the Canadian government is reluctant to say so. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
cbc.ca
Canada yanks sponsorship of disinformation conference discussing U.S. as a threat | CBC News
The federal government has withdrawn sponsorship of a European disinformation conference that includes panels discussing the U.S. government as a foreign interference risk.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Trump is doing everything he can to delay the inevitable release of Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago report. lawandcrime.com/high-profile...
lawandcrime.com
Trump lawyer says arguments to reverse Judge Cannon on Volume II can't happen before election
Trump needs to "confer" with his lawyer, so arguments to reverse Judge Cannon on the Mar-a-Lago report can't happen before the election, a filing claimed.
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Reposted by Jameel Jaffer
Knight First Amendment Institute @knightcolumbia.org · 06/10/2026
JUST FILED: “This report concerns allegations of serious misconduct by the nation’s highest public official. ... The court should reject this latest attempt at delay and hear the case on November 2,” @scottbwilkens.bsky.social knightcolumbia.org/content/knig...
knightcolumbia.org
Knight Institute Opposes Further Delay in Court Hearing on Release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Report
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I mean what’s to confer about, at this point? I think we already have a pretty good idea whether Trump wants the public to see this report that documents grave criminality on his part.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Lawyers for Trump, Nauta, De Oliveira want the Eleventh Circuit to delay an already long-delayed oral argument in @knightcolumbia.org’s challenge to the suppression of Jack Smith’s classified-docs report to give them more time to confer with Trump—about precisely what, they don’t say.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
For our symposium on "The Forever War and the First Amendment," @knightcolumbia.org and @harpers.bsky.social co-commissioned this essay from @harikunzru.bsky.social about art and censorship after 9/11. It's really good, and I'm hoping Hari will turn it into a book. harpers.org/archive/2026...
harpers.org
Stargazing, by Hari Kunzru
Art and censorship after 9/11
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The president's practice of expelling journalists whose stories he doesn't like is an insult to our democracy, and congress and the courts have already allowed it to go on for too long. www.cnn.com/2026/10/05/m...
cnn.com
White House blocks Politico from Air Force One amid press access lawsuit | CNN Business
The White House is refusing to allow Politico on Air Force One on Monday, which means the news organization cannot fulfill its press corps pool responsibilities.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
I had forgotten that Yesterday, the 2019 movie, was about Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) getting his lucky break because Ed Sheeran’s opening act bailed at the last minute.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Pompeo's own press release: www.mikepompeo.com/news/press-r...
mikepompeo.com
RELEASE: Secretary Mike Pompeo Joins Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics | Mike Pompeo
Today Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics (IGP) announced that Secretary Mike Pompeo will be joining the Institute as a Carnegie Distinguished Fellow.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
www.sipa.columbia.edu/news/columbi...
sipa.columbia.edu
Columbia Hires Mike Pompeo, Trump’s Former Secretary of State, to Teach Diplomacy
Mike Pompeo will take a post as a fellow at the school's Institute of Global Politics.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Senator Van Hollen quoted this in 2017 in questioning whether Pompeo should lead the CIA.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Mike Pompeo, whom Columbia's SIPA has just hired, had this to say about American Muslims in 2013, after the Boston marathon bombing, though every significant American Muslim leader condemned the attack.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Jamal Khashoggi was killed eight years ago today. Here's what @joelsimonsays.bsky.social and I said the US should do in response. Virtually none of it happened. MBS got away with murder. knightcolumbia.org/content/how-...
knightcolumbia.org
How America Can Deliver Justice for Jamal Khashoggi
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
thehill.com/homenews/adm...
thehill.com
Trump called out for ‘my favorite dictator’ while awaiting Egyptian leader at summit: report
President Trump, while awaiting a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi during the Group of Seven (G7) summit, called for “my favorite dictator,” The Wall Street Journal reported Fri…
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Trump's "favorite dictator" arrests an entire newsroom. www.occrp.org/en/news/egyp...
occrp.org
Egyptian Security Services Arrest Entire Newsroom within 24 Hours
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
And if you like the podcast, please consider voting for it here: vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting...
vote.signalaward.com
The Signal Listener's Choice Award needs YOU
I just voted for this finalist to win a Signal Listener's Choice Award. You should too.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
"Lawyering Without Law," @knightcolumbia.org's podcast about the role and responsibility of lawyers in an era of authoritarianism, is up for a Signal award because, well, it's really good. Listen here: www.knightcolumbia.org/content/lawy...
knightcolumbia.org
Lawyering Without Law
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
From @laurenleharper.bsky.social at @freedom.press knightcolumbia.org/blog/its-pas...
knightcolumbia.org
It's Past Time to Fix Overclassification. Here's Where to Start.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
From Margaret Kwoka at Ohio State Moritz College of Law knightcolumbia.org/blog/reimagi...
knightcolumbia.org
Reimagining FOIA’s Technology Infrastructure
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
From Ryan Mulvey at the Americans for Prosperity Foundation. knightcolumbia.org/blog/restori...
knightcolumbia.org
Restoring Judicial Review Under the Freedom of Information Act
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
From Matt Wood @freepress.bsky.social knightcolumbia.org/blog/beyond-...
knightcolumbia.org
Beyond Fighting Mergers and Censorship, to Finding and Funding New Models
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
From Michelle Kimball at Johns Hopkins knightcolumbia.org/blog/tacklin...
knightcolumbia.org
Tackling the Root Causes of Delays for Government Information
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
From Adam Marshall @a-marshall-plan.bsky.social at the Reporters Committee @rcfp.org knightcolumbia.org/blog/pacing-...
knightcolumbia.org
Pacing FOIA’s Frontier
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A new series of short essays about government transparency, published as part of @knightcolumbia.org's ongoing project on "Reconstructing Free Expression." knightcolumbia.org/research/rec...
knightcolumbia.org
Reconstructing Free Expression
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Thrilled that Vanita Gupta and Karen Kaiser have joined @knightcolumbia.org's board. As Lee Bollinger says, their appointments will strengthen the Institute at a critical moment for our work. knightcolumbia.org/content/vani...
knightcolumbia.org
Vanita Gupta and Karen Kaiser Join Knight Institute Board
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Totalitarian kitsch.
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Ben Eidelson @beidelson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
1/ The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights just released its report on campus antisemitism and Title VI. I testified at the hearing. The report is unanimous, bipartisan, & debunks the main legal theories behind recent attacks on universities for allegedly tolerating antisemitism. 🧵
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
All-Canadian Amicus.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It's insane that people are being arrested in London--Milton's city, the "mansion-house of liberty"--for *carrying signs* in support of Palestine Action. It's illegal to carry an article "in circumstances arousing reasonable suspicion that the person is a ... supporter of a proscribed organization."
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Thou shalt not transform the press pool into a propaganda organ. politicalwire.com/2026/09/25/p...
politicalwire.com
Pope Leo Xiv Responds to Trump’s Press Ban
"Pope Leo XIV told reporters they were welcome to cover him, as he responded to the Trump administration’s attempt to bar U.S. media from the White House and affirmed the importance of journalists…
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Is Trump’s friendly meeting with Mamdani good evidence that his opposition to socialism and communism is bogus? I mean his opposition may be bogus, but is this the evidence for it?
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Judges should award attorneys fees to media defendants in cases like this. The case is frivolous and it is transparently an effort to chill reporting protected by the First Amendment, as the NYT’s lawyers say. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/b...
nytimes.com
Florida Files Lawsuit Against The New York Times
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Hmm. But isn’t this a weird set of things to collect together as evidence of anything? Isn’t one thing not like the others?
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The rest of the analysis is good but I confess I almost stopped reading after that fourth paragraph.
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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The NYT’s evidence that Trump is siding with autocracy over democracy is that he rolled out the red carpet for Xi, started a trade war with Canada, barred news orgs from the White House, wants to play golf with Putin …and had a friendly meeting with Mamdani. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/u...
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