Talking Larry Bushart in The NYT! FIRE puts the Pentagon on notice! Suing over online speech doesn’t stop real-world violence! & more!
Bringing you the latest free speech news (11/30/25)
Story of the week
Nobody Should Go to Jail for a Harmless Meme (NYT) by me
Mr. Bushart’s case would be alarming even if it were the sole instance of institutional overreaction to a response to Mr. Kirk’s killing. But it is not unique. A recent review by Reuters of court records, local media reports and public statements found that more than 600 Americans have been fired, suspended, investigated or disciplined by employers for comments about the Kirk assassination. Mr. Bushart, too, lost his job — because he was in jail.
This week in ERI
In my quarter-century at FIRE, we had never seen an outright murder of a campus speaker like Mr. Kirk’s in the United States. And Mr. Bushart’s lengthy detention — he would be spending Thanksgiving in jail if public outrage had not convinced prosecutors to finally abandon the case — reflects the willingness of officials to violate civil rights, trusting they will not face meaningful consequences.
This week in Expression
Abbott’s blacklist: America’s tradition of branding dissent as treason by Jacob N. Gaba
You can’t eliminate real-world violence by suing over online speech by Ari Cohn
The case for treating adults as adults when it comes to AI chatbots by John Coleman
This week on So to Speak
This week Nico Perrino sat down with the Institute for Free Speech’s Bradley Smith and Brett Nolan to talk about two upcoming SCOTUS cases: First Choice Women’s Resource Center, Inc. v. Platkin, involving donor disclosure, and National Republican Senatorial Committee v. FEC, involving political party contributions to candidates.
This week in FIRE’s blog
The Pentagon’s actions are clear retaliation for something Sen. Kelly is entirely within his rights to say. America’s servicemembers already take an oath to uphold the Constitution, which includes not following illegal orders. The argument that the video’s message is sedition, or otherwise unprotected by the First Amendment, is flatly wrong.
FIRE in the press!
He spent 37 days in jail for a Facebook post. Larry Bushart’s story is a warning to us all (MSNOW) by Daniel Burnett
International free speech stories of the week
In a statement, the CPS said there was “no law to prosecute people for ‘blasphemy’”, but added: “Our case remains that Hamit Coskun’s words, choice of location and burning of the (Quran) amounted to disorderly behaviour... We have appealed the decision, and the judge has agreed to state a case for the High Court to consider.”
Bangkok vendors face royal defamation charge (Bangkok Post)
Hong Kong man charged with sedition over social media posts inciting others not to vote (HKFP) by Kelly Ho
AI slop of the month
You may not know this, but ERI Managing Editor Angel Eduardo is an unironic and unabashed fan of SisQó’s 1999 smash hit “Thong Song.”
It’s serious. He has ranted about it online, he won an internal FIRE essay contest with 800 enthusiastic words on the song, and he has said that the only thing that kept a string quartet from playing it at his wedding was his wife.
The other day he sent me this AI 1950’s Motown choir cover version of it, and I have to say — hot damn, that’s good! It’s no use just being critical of some of the stuff people are able to make with AI because some of it’s great.
Now…using this inspiration to do a live version of this rendition with actual humans? That would be a win-win.
Hell, I’m going to listen to it again right now.