After being formally installed as the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor of Intellectual Property, Technology and Civil Rights Law, Mary Anne Franks delivered stirring remarks invoking Sophie Scholl, a young German who resisted the Nazis during World War II.
In her most recent book, “Fearless Speech” (Bold Type Books, 2024), Franks describes being inspired by Scholl and the White Rose, a student-led resistance group at the University of Munich. The book, she said, is about parrhesia, or boldly speaking truth to power.
“It’s about celebrating the speakers who put their lives, their reputation, everything on the line to speak out against injustice even when the law would not protect them,” Franks said.
Serving as the ceremony’s emcee, GW Law Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew noted that Franks is internationally recognized for her expertise at the intersection of free speech, civil rights and technology.
“Dr. Franks says that she was drawn to GW because it ‘sees itself as a place where people can learn and do good in the world and try to revolutionize the law to make it fairer and more just.’ Doesn't that line up with who we are as Revolutionaries?” Matthew said.
Franks is the president and legislative and tech policy director of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), a nonprofit formed to combat online abuse and discrimination. In 2013, Matthew noted, Franks drafted the first model criminal statute on the nonconsensual distribution of intimate imagery, sometimes called revenge porn. Her model has served as a template for multiple state and federal laws.
For her first book, “Cult of the Constitution: Our Deadly Devotion to Guns and Free Speech” (Stanford University Press, 2019), Franks received several honors. Her second book, “Fearless Speech,” published late last year, has also received praise and was even recommended by Prince Harry in an interview with New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin.
In addition to her books, Franks has contributed dozens of chapters, essays and articles to other publications. She has testified before Congress six times and been a lead author on 12 amicus briefs in the past decade, four of them to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Her scholarship and expertise are central to the public discourse, and represent the very best of what independent higher education contributes to society,” Matthew said.
GW President Ellen M. Granberg said the ceremony was “a reminder of the power of higher education to honor the past, to elevate the present and to shape a better future.”
“Today's installation comes at a moment when the world is acutely aware of the importance of legal education and the rule of law, of having trusted experts, rigorous research and institutions that respond to the challenges of our time with integrity and insight,” Granberg said. “The focus of this endowed professorship reflects that urgency.”
Granberg noted that the endowed professorship was made possible by the generosity of Eugene L. Bernard, a 1951 graduate of GW Law, and his wife, Barbara, both now deceased.
In his remarks, Provost Christopher A. Bracey briefly sketched the history of endowed professorships, noting that the tradition dates back more than 500 years to Cambridge and Oxford universities, where Lady Margaret Beaufort, the Countess of Richmond and Derby and mother of King Henry VII, endowed professorships of divinity early in the 16th century.
“The oldest professorship that’s endowed at the George Washington University is the Congressional Professorship, which dates back to 1832, when it was established by an act of the United States Congress,” Bracey said. “Faculty members whose titles bear the names of endowed professorships, like Professor Franks, are selected for this honor because of their dedication to excellence, scholarship and leadership.”
Alan B. Morrison, Lerner Family Associate Dean for Public Interest and Public Service Law, praised Franks for bringing her “distinct feminist perspective to both criminal law and family law” and for recognizing that technology has changed the traditional landscape of First Amendment jurisprudence.
“Franks was the first to recognize the intersection between the First Amendment and technology in her work on revenge porn,” Morrison said. “For those of you who are not familiar with it, revenge porn arises in situations in which intimate partners decide they want to take photographs or videos of each other engaged in intimate activities. The inevitable breakup occurs and one of the partners decides to get even by posting this on the internet. And the question is: How does the First Amendment intersect with that?”
Urging listeners to read Franks’ March 25 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Morrison praised her moral clarity on issues raised by censorship and the First Amendment.
In a short speech concluding the ceremony, Franks expressed gratitude for the honor and remembered Sophie Scholl, who was handed over to the Gestapo after being observed distributing anti-Nazi leaflets at the University of Munich. Her story, Franks said, points to the great promise of universities as well as betrayal of that promise. Scholl was apprehended on February 18, 1943, and guillotined just four days later.
“In the account of Sophie’s cellmate,” Franks said, “Sophie's last words on her way to her execution were, ‘What does my death matter, if through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?’” She was 21 years old.
“When I think of Sophie's story,” Franks said, “I ask myself, What if the university had chosen differently? What if at the first demand to root out ‘dangerous’ concepts or reject ‘unsuitable’ individuals, the university had simply refused? …What if it had unequivocally supported, as part of its mission, the right of students and faculty to freely challenge and criticize the government, even in disorderly or disruptive ways?”
In conclusion, Franks said, “Those of us who are fortunate enough to be part of a university today … have no excuse not to see the power that we have and the danger that we’re in. The current test that is facing educational institutions across the United States today is nothing less than a test of our democracy and of our humanity. I hope, for the sake of our students, our community, and our country, that we will not fail it.”
