The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Sorrell v. IMS Health has been heralded as a major victory for commercial free speech rights and raised serious questions about how to reconcile privacy regulations with the First Amendment. The high Court struck down a Vermont law requiring that doctors opt in before drug companies could use data about their prescription patterns to market (generally name-brand) drugs to them. But what does the Court’s decision really mean for the regulation of advertising, marketing, and data flows across the economy? Has free speech doctrine fundamentally changed? Will existing privacy laws be subject to new legal challenges? How might the decision affect the ongoing debate about privacy regulation in Congress and at the FTC?
These are some of the questions that will be addressed by leading thinkers on First Amendment law and privacy at an event hosted by TechFreedom, a new digital policy think tank, and the law firm of Hunton & Williams LLP. The event will take place on Tuesday, July 19 from 12 to 3 p.m. at Hunton & Williams’s newly opened offices at 2200 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington DC. Complimentary lunch will be served.
The event will include two panels:
- Panel 1: Sorrell: Towards Greater Commercial Free Speech Protections?
- Moderator: Greg Stohr, Bloomberg
- Tom Julin, Hunton Williams
- Bob Corn-Revere, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
- Greg Beck, Public Citizen
- Richard Ovelmen, Jordan Burt
- Prof. David Orentlicher, Indiana University School of Law
- Panel 2: Privacy after Sorrell: Reconciling Data Restrictions & the First Amendment
- Moderator: Jim Harper, Cato Institute
- John Verdi, Electronic Privacy Information Center
- Jonathan Emord, Emord & Associates P.C.
- John Morris, Center for Democracy & Technology
- Berin Szoka, TechFreedom
TechFreedom filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court in this case (our media statement), led by Richard Ovelmen, and previously joined with other free speech groups in an amicus brief before the Second Circuit.
To Register: Space is limited. To guarantee a seat, register online here
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.