At 2nd Circuit Judicial Conference, Professor Soucek Discusses Efforts to 'Tame' Art

Professor Brian Soucek took part in the 2025 Second Circuit Judicial Conference, held June 2-4 at the historic Sagamore Resort in Bolton Landing, N.Y.

Professor Soucek spoke as part of the plenary session “Art & Legal Efforts to Silence, Tame and Cage It.” Soucek joined Yale Law Professor Reva Siegel and Artists at Risk Connection Executive Director Julie Trébault in the discussion moderated by Yale Law Professor Robert Post. U.S. Court of International Trade Senior Judge Jane Restani ’73 attended the talk.

Soucek is the author of Permitting Art: Visual Arts and the First Amendment on the Streets of New York, published last year by the Brooklyn-based art press Cabinet.

Titled “Art & Law,” the judicial conference’s program encompassed topics including cultural heritage and its safekeeping and AI and the future of artistic creation. Speakers ranged from judges and academics to creators including filmmaker Bennett Miller (“Capote”) and author and journalist Rich Cohen.

Professor Soucek’s primary teaching and research interests are antidiscrimination law, civil procedure, constitutional law, and refugee/asylum law. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Mark R. Kravitz in Connecticut, and Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Professor Soucek is a UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow. His book, The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education, will be published later this year by the University of Chicago Press.