FIRE Serves Notice on Speech Codes

Glenn Ricketts

Our friends at FIRE continue to stand tall in defense of free speech rights on public university campuses, where senior administrators have long stonewalled criticism of unconstitutional speech codes. As FIRE attempts to make clear in a letter sent to over 300 university presidents and their legal advisers, that's going to have to change, unless they want to pay out for hefty damage settlements. They may not have noticed, but the tide of First Amendment jurisprudence is running heavily against them, as a slew of recent cases makes clear. And if college presidents don't think their speech codes are unconstitutional, they may be in for a quick and expensive crash course on the First Amendment. FIRE will see to that, and once again, we have reason to salute their outstanding work.

  • Share

Most Commented

March 31, 2025

1.

Keeping Watch

Columbia's descent into chaos is by its own hand. Actions to right the university must be swift and tough....

March 24, 2025

2.

A Reckoning for Higher Education?

Are American colleges and universities finally getting their comeuppance?...

April 15, 2025

3.

Fighting Harvard and the Other Cultural Warlords

The academic bureaucracies and professoriate are so deeply committed to their radical program of replacing American society with their own vision of a new order that we have no real choice b......

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

April 15, 2025

2.

Fighting Harvard and the Other Cultural Warlords

The academic bureaucracies and professoriate are so deeply committed to their radical program of replacing American society with their own vision of a new order that we have no real choice b......

October 12, 2010

3.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...