Ken White
First Amendment lawyer and former federal prosecutor; writes The Popehat Report and explains what the law actually says when people shout about free speech.
Ken White did not write this page. What is this?
It collects the places they publish and what they have said there, each linked to the source. They have no account here. Is this you? Claim it, correct it, or ask us to remove it from ppll.
Where they publish
Newsletter The Popehat Report His newsletter on free speech and the courts. Has a feed.
Recent
- The Popehat Report Is Moving To Beehiiv 30 Jan 2024 As I mentioned before, the Popehat Report is moving to Beehiiv, a different platform for blogs and newsletters.
- Win A Dream Date With A Litigious Douchebag! 12 Jan 2024 In Which Nikko D’Ambrosio’s Lawyers Introduce Him Rather Forcibly To Barbara Streisand
- May A Public University Fire Its Chancellor For Appearing In Porn Videos On His Own Time? 28 Dec 2023 This Seems Like Some Sweeps Week Bullshit But Sure, What The Hell, Let's Analyze It
Show 17 more
- Substack Has A Nazi Opportunity 21 Dec 2023 Dealing With Nazis, Or Not, Can Be A Brand. Substack’s Monetizing It.
- Stop Demanding Dumb Answers To Hard Questions 7 Dec 2023 Demanding Short, Dumb Answers About Hate Speech Makes You A Useful Idiot For Bigots.
- Punishment Envy And The Perils Of Institutional Engagement 28 Nov 2023 Institutions That Start Addressing Controversies May Find It Hard To Stop
- In Which I Repent On Free Speech Culture 22 Nov 2023 I Apologize To Elon Musk For Infringing On His Speech
- My Free Speech Means You Have To Shut Up 20 Nov 2023 Elon Musk and The Enduring Appeal of “Criticism is Censorship”
- Overt Acts and Predicate Acts, Explained 17 Aug 2023 No, Fani Willis Is Not Making Tweets Or Phone Calls Into Crimes. But Maybe Her Indictment Is A Bit Indulgent And Gratuitous.
- The Weight Of The Unspoken Word 10 Aug 2023 Talking Carefully About Suicide Is Good. Avoiding The Subject Isn’t.
- The National Review Is Still Lying To You About The Fraud Charge Against Trump 8 Aug 2023 Yes It Vexes Me. This Is Just How God Made Me.
- Beware The Flood Of Trump Sentencing Disinformation 6 Aug 2023 It Can Come From Anywhere — Even The Washington Post
- People Are Lying To You About The Trump Indictment 2 Aug 2023 National Review Is Lying, For Instance. There Will Be More. Keep An Eye Out.
- Is Following An Extradition Treaty An Elaborate Political Conspiracy? 1 Aug 2023 No. No it is not. That's Just Wrong, Glenn.
- Hunter Biden And The Fog Of War 26 Jul 2023 What We Don’t Know About Why The Hunter Biden Plea Deal Blew Up
- Supreme Court Clarifies "True Threats" First Amendment Exception 27 Jun 2023 Fine, Stop Whining, We'll Explain, Court Says
- That's Not How Recusal Works, That's Not How Any Of This Works! 13 Jun 2023 I've Got A Lot Of Problems With You People, And Now You're Going To Hear About It.
- Jack Smith, Donald Trump, and the Kobayashi Maru 10 Jun 2023 How Should The Rule of Law Approach No-Win Scenarios?
- Speech or Cancel Culture At Boston University? 31 May 2023 Nah Fam That's Speech, Come On Now
- Deserve’s Got Nothing To Do With It 5 May 2023 Thoughts From 2012 Seem Relevant in 2023
Link verified 20 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 9 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Whether calling for the genocide of a group breaches a university's harassment policy genuinely depends on context.
If you think the question “is calling for the genocide of a group against your policy” is an easy question with a one-word answer, you’re wrong.
Stop Demanding Dumb Answers To Hard Questions Said 7 Dec 2023
Demanding simple answers to hard questions is itself a political harm, not just an intellectual one.
The stubborn thirst for simple answers to hard questions is bad for America.
Stop Demanding Dumb Answers To Hard Questions Said 7 Dec 2023
Refusing to advertise on a platform is protected expression, not an attack on the platform owner's free speech.
Elon Musk’s sullen yawp amounts to a claim that he has a right for companies to sponsor his speech, no matter what he says. That’s nonsense, both legally and philosophically.
My Free Speech Means You Have To Shut Up Said 20 Nov 2023
Show 6 more
Treating criticism as censorship is a widespread confusion, and it is wrong: the critic has speech rights of their own.
“Your criticism violates my right to free speech” is a fatuous but common American sentiment.
My Free Speech Means You Have To Shut Up Said 20 Nov 2023
The cancel-culture argument now mostly shields the powerful from criticism rather than protecting the powerless from being silenced.
In my view, too many critics of “cancel culture” are recklessly promoting not the speech of the powerless, but the censorious resentment of the powerful.
My Free Speech Means You Have To Shut Up Said 20 Nov 2023
Anyone who tells you a contested legal question has one obvious answer is lying to you rather than analysing it.
Here’s the point: there are legal and factual defenses to this indictment, but anyone telling you that it obviously, inarguably violates the law is lying to you.
People Are Lying To You About The Trump Indictment Said 2 Aug 2023
The way to tell legal analysis from partisan lying is to distrust absolute certainty and to trust conceded ambiguity.
Be skeptical of absolute certainty not backed up with proof. Be skeptical of pronouncements that there’s only one way a court will ever possibly interpret something.
People Are Lying To You About The Trump Indictment Said 2 Aug 2023
There is no single reasonable person in America, which makes the objective test for a true threat very hard to administer.
As I’ve argued before, the so-called “objective standard” can be very difficult to administer in this big diverse messy country where we often don’t share a common sense of reality and there is no uniform “reasonable person.”
Supreme Court Clarifies "True Threats" First Amendment Exception Said 27 Jun 2023
A threat loses First Amendment protection only if the speaker was at least reckless about it being taken as a threat.
Now, finally, the Court has resolved the question: the First Amendment requires that, at a minimum, the government prove that a speaker was reckless about whether their statement would be interpreted as threatening.
Supreme Court Clarifies "True Threats" First Amendment Exception Said 27 Jun 2023
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
30 January 2024
12 January 2024
28 December 2023
21 December 2023
7 December 2023
From one piece Stop Demanding Dumb Answers To Hard Questions 2 beliefs · popehat.substack.com
-
korrents.com
Demanding simple answers to hard questions is itself a political harm, not just an intellectual one.Their words
The stubborn thirst for simple answers to hard questions is bad for America.
Stop Demanding Dumb Answers To Hard Questionspopehat.substack.com
-
korrents.com
Whether calling for the genocide of a group breaches a university's harassment policy genuinely depends on context.Their words
If you think the question “is calling for the genocide of a group against your policy” is an easy question with a one-word answer, you’re wrong.
Stop Demanding Dumb Answers To Hard Questionspopehat.substack.com
28 November 2023
22 November 2023
20 November 2023
From one piece My Free Speech Means You Have To Shut Up 3 beliefs · popehat.substack.com
-
Their words
In my view, too many critics of “cancel culture” are recklessly promoting not the speech of the powerless, but the censorious resentment of the powerful.
My Free Speech Means You Have To Shut Uppopehat.substack.com
-
Their words
“Your criticism violates my right to free speech” is a fatuous but common American sentiment.
My Free Speech Means You Have To Shut Uppopehat.substack.com
-
korrents.com
Refusing to advertise on a platform is protected expression, not an attack on the platform owner's free speech.Their words
Elon Musk’s sullen yawp amounts to a claim that he has a right for companies to sponsor his speech, no matter what he says. That’s nonsense, both legally and philosophically.
My Free Speech Means You Have To Shut Uppopehat.substack.com
17 August 2023
10 August 2023
8 August 2023
6 August 2023
2 August 2023
From one piece People Are Lying To You About The Trump Indictment 2 beliefs · popehat.substack.com
-
korrents.com
The way to tell legal analysis from partisan lying is to distrust absolute certainty and to trust conceded ambiguity.Their words
Be skeptical of absolute certainty not backed up with proof. Be skeptical of pronouncements that there’s only one way a court will ever possibly interpret something.
-
korrents.com
Anyone who tells you a contested legal question has one obvious answer is lying to you rather than analysing it.Their words
Here’s the point: there are legal and factual defenses to this indictment, but anyone telling you that it obviously, inarguably violates the law is lying to you.
1 August 2023
26 July 2023
27 June 2023
From one piece Supreme Court Clarifies "True Threats" First Amendment Exception 2 beliefs · popehat.substack.com
-
korrents.com
A threat loses First Amendment protection only if the speaker was at least reckless about it being taken as a threat.Their words
Now, finally, the Court has resolved the question: the First Amendment requires that, at a minimum, the government prove that a speaker was reckless about whether their statement would be interpreted as threatening.
-
Their words
As I’ve argued before, the so-called “objective standard” can be very difficult to administer in this big diverse messy country where we often don’t share a common sense of reality and there is no uniform “reasonable person.”
13 June 2023
10 June 2023
31 May 2023
5 May 2023
Nothing matches.
About the English under a post
Some people here publish in a language other than English. Where they do, this site shows a machine translation beneath the post, in this typeface — the site's own, not theirs.
The post itself is never changed, moved or hidden: what is set in the serif above is exactly what the person published, and it is what to quote them on. A translation can be wrong in ways that matter, especially about tone.
Only the post's own words are translated. A quoted post, a linked article and a belief on korrents.com are left in their original language.