Joe Cohn
FIREStaff Speaker

Joe Cohn serves as director of 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 Legislative and Policy department, overseeing a team of attorneys and staff tasked with monitoring and engaging on legislation and regulatory matters. Under his leadership, FIREhas secured numerous victories for free speech and due process at the state and federal level.
Joe is a 2004 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Fels Institute of Government Administration, where he earned his Juris Doctor and master鈥檚 degree in Government Administration. In 2000, he graduated with distinction from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, where he co-founded the student chapter of the ACLU. A former staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and law clerk in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, Joe joined FIREin 2012 with a career-long dedication to advancing the cause of civil liberties, including through his service as a staff attorney at the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania where he provided legal services to underserved communities. His awards include accolades from The Legal Intelligencer and Pennsylvania Law Weekly, who named him a 2007 鈥淟awyer on the Fast Track,鈥 and from Super Lawyers magazine, who named him a 鈥淩ising Star鈥 in 2008.
Joe鈥檚 career also includes teaching at University of Pennsylvania Law School鈥檚 Gittis Civil Practice Clinic in 2010, where he lectured on good trial practices and supervised law students as they represented real clients in both state and federal courts. Just prior to joining 果冻传媒app官方, Joe served as the interim legal director for ACLU affiliates in Nevada and Utah.
As legislative and policy director, Joe spearheads 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 advocacy at all levels of government. He has testified before Congress and in state legislatures across the country and has drafted numerous bills that have been enacted into state law. He regularly comments on 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 issues in the media.
Recent Writings
- Targeting students for disparate treatment based on protected class is not protected by academic freedom,
- Supporting diversity on campus requires reining in restrictive DEI programs,
- Connecticut Supreme Court issues blistering critique of Yale鈥檚 unfair Title IX proceedings,
- Biden Administration鈥檚 plan to combat anti-Semitism online would violate the First Amendment,
- Biden plan wrongly proposes censorship to reduce anti-Semitism in pop culture,
- Biden Administration鈥檚 plan to address anti-Semitism includes censorship,
- Florida just doubled down on the Stop WOKE Act, and the new bill is just as unconstitutional,
- FIRE statement: Florida bill attacking NYT v. Sullivan would 鈥榮pell disaster鈥 for free speech,
- Unconstitutional 鈥楽AFER Act鈥 violates the First Amendment, undermines academic freedom, and seeks to upend decades of anti-discrimination law,
- Late amendment to Arizona bill targets academic freedom in teacher preparation programs,

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