FIRE will fight! … For your right! … To Cardi!
Bringing you the latest free speech news (9/22/24)
Stories of the week
“This ruling confirms what I’ve known all along,” said Diei. “I have a right to express myself in my private life that’s separate from school, and so do my classmates. I enrolled in pharmacy school to learn, not to have my taste in music and my thoughts on culture policed.”
But due to X’s noncompliance and refusal to provide an in-country legal representative in Brazil, Moraes ordered X to be blocked within the country at the end of August, affecting an estimated 22 million Brazilian users. This is far from Moraes’ first foray into blocking and banning apps. And in the past two years Moraes has regularly employed his authority to issue takedown demands, “often in sealed orders that do not disclose why a given account was suspended.”
This week in FIRE’s blog
House passes historic legislation protecting free speech on college campuses by Tyler Coward & Jordan Howell
Kamala Harris comedy roast denied funding by University of South Carolina student senate by David Volodzko
LAWSUIT: Historian fights back after the Pennsylvania state senator sues him for criticizing book
“Mastriano’s lawsuit is a threat to academic freedom,” said FIRE attorney Sara Berinhout. “Historians settle debates in the marketplace of ideas, not the courtroom. And they certainly don’t argue that their critics are racketeers like Al Capone or John Gotti.”
Professor UW fired as chancellor for making vegan-themed porn with wife, lawyers up in fight to keep his faculty job by Alex Morey
This week in ERI
FIRE in the press!
Commentary: USC supports free speech, even when it’s unpopular (The Post and Courier) by
One of the hardest things about defending speech is that it’s largely about a set of norms. As a public university, USC has constitutional free speech obligations, but not even the power of the First Amendment can change culture. When support for free speech begins to erode, reversing that trend can be like trying to change a frat party into a book club.
International free speech stories of the week
1 year, 2 months jail for first person convicted under Hong Kong’s new security law for ‘seditious’ T-shirt (HKFP) by James Lee
Millionaire mum arrested after posting conspiracy theory that sparked Southport riots faces no further action (The Sun) by Holly Christodoulou
London Calling: Ronnie’s First Amendment Roundup
In a massive win for free speech at public universities, the Sixth Circuit revived a FIRE lawsuit on behalf of Kimberly Diei, who as a University of Tennessee graduate pharmacy student suffered a professionalism committee vote expelling her under a vague UT professionalism policy for social media posts that it called “crude,” “vulgar,” and “sexual.” Reversing the district court’s dismissal of the case on the supposed ground that the First Amendment did not protect the social media posts, the Sixth Circuit held that “unless the College had a genuine educational purpose for regulating Diei’s speech, her communications fell safely within the confines of First Amendment protection.” In doing so, it rejected the College’s claim that its punishment taught Diei the “norms of the pharmacy profession,” explaining that teaching professionalism might be a legitimate basis for regulating student speech, but “the interest evaporates entirely if the College’s professionalism regulations bear little resemblance to those of the profession.” Because Diei posted about sexuality, fashion, and song lyrics unrelated to the study of pharmacy, outside the pharmacy program, on her own time, and without IDing herself as a student (under a pseudonymous handle, in fact), the College had no reason to regulate her speech—and, crucially, the court held the administrators who tried to expel her were not entitled to qualified immunity from damages because they had fair warning the First Amendment protected her posts. Given that FIRE has fought for years against schools using vague professionalism policies to regulate student speech, the decision becomes much-needed precedent protecting students against these policies.
Book of the month
Gow was my Dean.