Issues like age verification, artificial intelligence and academic freedom have been playing out across the country.
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- First Amendment debates in 2026 are expected to focus on age verification, artificial intelligence, and academic freedom.
- Courts will likely continue to address campus speech, particularly concerning the rights of non-citizen activists.
- The question of whether AI-generated content is protected by the First Amendment is anticipated to be a key legal issue.
Age verification, artificial intelligence, and academic freedom dominated First Amendment debates in 2025. As the calendar turns to 2026, constitutional scholars say those disputes are poised to intensify – and to produce consequential legal outcomes.
Battles over speech, expression, and religious liberty are already unfolding in state legislatures and federal courtrooms across the country. In the year ahead, experts anticipate federal judges and the U.S. Supreme Court to confront cases that could redefine the boundaries of protected expression in the digital age.
The stakes rise even higher in 2026, when voters will also have their say at the ballot box. With midterm elections approaching, the direction of these debates may be shaped not only by court rulings, but by the political choices Americans make.
Here are areas in which First Amendment experts anticipate to see developments:
Age verification and social media restrictions
In June, the Supreme Court upheld a Texas law requiring pornographic websites to verify users are at least 18 years old. Justices were split 6-3, but the majority said that Texas’ law advanced the interest of preventing children from viewing sexually explicit content.
More than two dozen states have age verification laws — including Florida, where the Free Speech Coalition dropped its lawsuit challenging the state’s law — and these laws are expected to further develop.
Now the question is to what extent states will require age verification to even go online, said Kevin Goldberg, a First Amendment attorney and expert at the Freedom Forum. “The door has opened,” he said. “How big is that door going to be?”
The Supreme Court is expected to continue to draw lines between the government’s interest in protecting children and constitutional limits prohibiting broad, content-based burdens on lawful speech, said Ashkhen Kazaryan, a senior legal fellow at the Future of Free Speech.
“The constitutional tension is that age verification (does) more than regulate access. (It) can deter adults from engaging with protected expression, undermine anonymity, and force platforms to redesign how speech is organized and delivered,” Kazaryan said.
Campus speech and academic freedom
In September, a federal judge agreed with university associations that the Trump administration targeted non-citizen pro-Palestinian activists based on protected First Amendment political speech.
This case could have movement in the courts in 2026 and potentially go into the precipice of Supreme Court review. said Alex Abdo, the litigation director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, the organization that represented the plaintiffs. Abdo said this case presents among the “most significant First Amendment challenges to this administration’s use of power.”
“That’s the kind of thing that I’ll be looking for, whether the Supreme Court, when it gets some of these cases, reaffirm strongly its past precedent on the very strong protections that the First Amendment provides,” Abdo said.
Kazaryan agreed that the speech of non-citizen students will continue to be scrutinized by the Trump administration and said that executive actions aimed at regulating university programs, federal funding and protest activity will “increasingly collide with free speech and free association principles.”
“Beyond campuses, the government will also continue testing new theories and grey legal areas to justify actions like monitoring social media posts of those applying for visas or targeting immigrants for speech they deem ‘anti-American,’ ” Kazaryan said.
AI regulations
Chatbot cases may go under First Amendment scrutiny in 2026, according to Clay Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow specializing in First Amendment issues at the American Enterprise Institute.
Calvert said although chatbots are not human, they’re created by humans, which could raise the question of whether their output is protected by the First Amendment.
“We’re going to see a lot more chatbot liability cases where people are going to be suing the companies behind chatbots, claiming that those companies are responsible for harms that the chatbots allegedly caused to individuals, or the deaths that they allegedly caused,” Calvert said.
Calvert referenced a Florida case, where a 14-year-old took his own life after developing a romantic relationship on the Character.AI platform. His mother filed a lawsuit in October 2024 against the AI company.
President Donald Trump signed an order Dec. 11 which blocked states from creating AI regulations, although all 50 states have introduced various AI-focused legislation this year.
Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Phil Sechler said one particular measure in California is expected to garner more attention in 2026, since a federal court in August struck down the law restricting election-related deepfakes, which are AI-generated manipulated media.
But with how ubiquitous AI content becomes, the question of who is liable for AI-generated speech will continue develop in 2026, Kazaryan said.
“There will no doubt be more legislation from state legislatures that will be tested by the courts regarding where First Amendment protections lie in the age of AI,” Kazaryan said.
This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA Today Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Stephany Matat is based in Tallahassee, Fla. She can be reached at SMatat@gannett.com. On X: @stephanymatat.
