Speech First is an organization like FIRE, in that they combat abuses of free speech rights on college campuses. Now they have set their sights on the University of Texas.
From their website:
Speech First Files Federal Lawsuit Challenging Four University of Texas Policies That Chill Student Speech
Speech First, a nonprofit membership association...
This group apparently believes the free speech crisis on college campuses has been manufactured by conservatives.
The College Fix reports:
New ‘Network of Concerned Academics’ rallies against the ‘right-wing’
A coalition of higher education administrators, faculty, staff...
A survey from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education found that nine out of ten universities in America restrict free speech. From The College Fix:
“FIRE encourages colleges and universities to revise all policies that regulate expression so that they only ban expression that is not protected by the First Amendment,...
When you place these types of restrictions on speech, someone has to be in charge of deciding what qualifies as mean or nasty.
Ashe Schow reports at the Daily Wire:
University Speech Code Bans ‘Mean’ Speech
We’ve moved on from using the term “hate speech” to describe wide swaths of speech we don’t like...
This happened at Bowling Green State. The story below notes that this is basically a violation of free speech.
Campus Reform reports:
University suspends fraternity members over constitutionally protected speech
Bowling Green State University suspended nine students from participating in a fraternity for one year following a Halloween costume incident.
The nine Pi Kappa Alpha...
Not only is the school paying a cash settlement to YAF, the heckler’s veto at Berkeley is basically over. This is big.
From the YAF blog:
YAF Wins Landmark Free Speech Lawsuit, UC Berkeley To Pay $70,000 And Rescind Unconstitutional Policies
Following more than a year of hard-fought litigation in the hostile Ninth Circuit,...
Williams is considering adopting a pro-free speech policy and some members of the student body are very unhappy about it.
Greg Lukianoff of the FIRE writes at Ricochet:
Students at Williams College Demand Freedom from Speech
Students at Williams College in Massachusetts are angry. According to a petition (PDF) signed by hundreds of students,...
The Twitter purge continues, but only of certain people.
If you are an Islamist anti-Semite like Louis Farrakhan, Linda Sarsour, or Congresswoman-elect Ihlan Omar, you are safe. If you are the military wing of Hamas, you are safe. If you are an unhinged anti-Trump conspiracy theorist, you are safe.
The NRA appears likely to get its day in Court against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and his administration.
We covered the lawsuit and the NRA’s longstanding dispute with Cuomo in May 2018, NRA sues NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo for using financial regulator to “blacklist” NRA:
The administration defended an event featuring the conservative group Turning Point USA and apparently that’s a big problem.
The College Fix reports:
Student groups furious at Cal State-Long Beach for supporting First Amendment
A coalition of liberal student organizations has condemned California State-Long Beach President Jane Close Conoley and her administration for allowing an...
Adam Carolla and Dennis Prager have been making rounds in media, promoting their film project “No Safe Spaces” which focuses on free speech and social justice warrior culture on college campuses.
Professor Samuel Abrams is a conservative-leaning tenured professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College. He is active in Heterodox Academy, a group of almost 2000 academics devoted to intellectual diversity on campus.
Prof. Abrams recently wrote an op-ed for the New York Times about the lack of ideological diversity among administrators at...
American college professors are becoming increasingly open about their politics in the classroom, even in unrelated subjects. A new survey has found that in response, students are much less comfortable sharing their views on politics, especially if they disagree. It also affects differences between students.
This is such a basic aspect of free speech yet it’s forgotten so often.
Sergio Hruszko writes at the Washington Examiner:
Free Speech Week isn’t just for you and me, it’s also for people and ideas we don’t like
As the country celebrates Free Speech Week, I’m left wondering: Will students on college campuses...
In 2009, an Austrian woman conducting a seminar on Islam argued that Muhammad’s marriage to a six year old girl meant he was a pedophile. She was convicted for this by an Austrian court, and now the European Court of Human Rights agrees.
While you were focused on the midterm elections, the Kavanaugh hearings, and other media firestorms, a coalition of left-wing activist groups, including some that actively attack conservatives, has moved forward with efforts to get big tech companies to censor online speech.
The problem of big tech companies acting as speech gatekeepers has...
The GOP should take this up as a national campaign and distinguish themselves as the free speech party.
Campus Reform reports:
EXCLUSIVE: SD lawmakers mount free speech pressure campaign
South Dakota lawmakers in recent months have pressured the state’s Board of Regents (BOR) to implement policies geared toward fostering free expression on college campuses.
Letters...
