Defending perennial underdog … Harvard, AdGo & I solve the campus free speech crisis, Rikki & I talk ‘Canceling’ paperback, & more!
Bringing you the latest free speech news (5/11/25)
Stories of the week
Yes, Harvard Deserves Due Process (Persuasion) by me and
Harvard has absolutely earned everyone’s scorn. For years, our organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), has been criticizing Harvard for creating an ideological monoculture, cultivating an environment hostile to viewpoint diversity, and failing to address the problem of anti-Semitism on its campus.
However, the administration’s actions towards Harvard pose a far greater threat to higher education and the principles of academic freedom than any of the sins committed by Harvard itself.
Navigating Free Speech at “Hypothetical University” by me and
(excerpted from ‘The Free Inquiry Papers’)
The First Amendment includes the right to be wrong, because if it didn’t, we’d need to appoint an arbiter of truth. That duty would probably fall to Congress, and we’re not sure any of us would trust the result of that process.
Even if we thought that was a good idea, truth is rarely as simple or as binary as we would like, and the process of refining truth means processing through what, eventually, we see as untruth. Truth is a never-ending process of conjecture and refutation, chipping away at falsity to zero in on, but never quite reach, the truth. The diversity of activity on a modern campus reflects the pursuit of truth down every possible corridor, but the institution’s purpose remains the pursuit of truth, and the biggest mistakes begin when we forget that.
In this document, we provide one-page reports that compare and evaluate 55 institutions — varying in size, prestige, and type — on a variety of metrics including free speech, ideological diversity among students and faculty, administrative size, enrollment, faculty tenure, and institutional spending.
This week in FIRE’s blog
After brazen attack on expressive rights, faculty at Sterling College aren’t in Kansas anymore by
Colorado reversal on misgendering ban is a crisis averted but a danger revealed by
If you think it’s dangerous for Florida’s legislators to have the power to police speech in public school classrooms, then you should find it equally outrageous for Colorado legislators to try to mandate what pronouns parents can use with their own children in their own homes or journalists can use when reporting stories.
When a state starts dictating which words are acceptable in public discourse and private discussion, it jumps headlong into the culture wars, telling everyone to fall in line or face the consequences.
In a testament to how little Brown values its own promises, the university replied that this targeted investigation into a student journalist was not a free speech issue. But despite this less-than-credible response, Brown actually did drop the misrepresentation charge. Good news, right? Not so fast.
Alumni seek to rewaken the forgotten fight for free speech at UC San Diego by Bobby Ramkissoon
FIRE in the press!
London Calling: Ronnie’s First Amendment Roundup
Öztürk v. Trump
Federal judge orders release of Tufts student ICE had detained for deportation based on her op-ed criticizing Israel
Following up on our entry a few weeks back reporting on denial of the government’s petition to dismiss Rümeysa Öztürk’s habeas petition and ordering her return to Vermont from immigrant detention in Louisiana, we have for this week not an opinion, but an order, and one that’s a little terse and opaque, at that—but the court’s remarks from the bench issuing it speak volumes. In concluding that “[h]er continued detention cannot stand,” the court confirmed the government offered no evidence Öztürk engaged in violence or any other crimes to justify detention. Rather, the court explained: “The reason she’s been detained is simply and purely the expression she made,” which the court warned chills millions of noncitizens from expressing their views “for fear of being whisked away from their home.” The order is strong reaffirmation that the First Amendment protects everyone in America, citizen or not, from seizure and punishment for voicing opinions on matters of public concern. Which is just as FIRE argued in calling for the release of Ms. Öztürk – which happily occurred hours after the order issued – as well as all others detained and targeted for deportation based on protected speech, in a brief joined by a nonpartisan coalition that included National Coalition Against Censorship, Cato, PEN America, and the Rutherford Institute.
With thanks to FIRE Supervising Senior Attorney Conor Fitzpatrick
International free speech stories of the week
Meta Blocks Access to Muslim News Page in India (Barron’s) by Anuj Chopra
Hong Kong police arrest father and brother of wanted activist Anna Kwok (Reuters) by Jesse Pang
Wikipedia legally changes ‘flawed’ online safety rules (BBC) by Chris Vallance
Shameless appeal of the week
Free speech isn't free, and as my mom used to say, "we can't live on love." Defending the First Amendment rights of all Americans takes real resources. Help fight censorship by donating to FIRE today.
Podcast of the month
This week,
host sat down with yours truly and my co-author to talk about the recent paperback release of ‘The Canceling of the American Mind.’
"However, the administration’s actions towards Harvard pose a far greater threat to higher education and the principles of academic freedom than any of the sins committed by Harvard itself."
Bluntly, this is BS. The patient is dying of cancer and you're criticizing the chemo as worse than the disease. HARVARD, as is, is a far greater threat to higher education and academic freedom than anything this administration is doing.
French researcher Ernest Renan defined Aryan and Semitic over 150 years ago.
A Jew didn't want to be compared with others who speak Semite languages, and referred to Renan's research as ant-Semitic.
Anti-Jew is not sufficient to be ant-Semitic.
Maybe this is one reason why Harvard should have its federal funding cut.
Clearly, Harvard is no longer a haven of elite academics and students.
Just a bunch of whining old men (and women) who are made of lead and used the Harvard name to gild with gold or silver plating.