I’m back in The Atlantic, I get philosophical about ‘The War On Words,’ I go LIVE with Garry Kasparov, & more!

Bringing you the latest free speech news (6/1/25)

Stories of the week

• Trump’s Attacks Threaten Much More Than Harvard by me (The Atlantic)

The government’s demand that Harvard turn over five years of footage of protests—a time frame that, tellingly, is not limited to the Gaza protests since October 7 that got out of control or involved illegal behavior—is one of the more chilling things I’ve seen in my almost-25-year career defending free expression on college campuses. These actions threaten not just Harvard, but every institution of higher education on American soil. That’s true regardless of your criticisms of Harvard, and I have plenty of those.

• I was also happy to join

  Andrew Keen
  on his podcast “Keen On” this week to discuss — what else? — FIRE, free speech, academic freedom, standing up for First Amendment principles, and more!

  We also talked a lot about supporting FIRE, and how important that support is to all the work we do. So if you care about free speech, and you value FIRE’s efforts to protect and promote it in our courts, on our campuses, and in our culture, please consider donating to FIRE! Every dime counts!

This week in FIRE’s blog

• The Supreme Court made your rights harder to defend — Congress must now step up by Greg Gonzalez

• Salt Lake City eases off crackdown on salty speech after FIRE steps in by Stephanie Jablonsky

• Supreme Court rejects case over ‘Two genders’ shirt ban, threatening student speech across New England by Sara Berinhout

This week in ERI

This week, I participated in my first-ever Substack Live hosted by

Garry Kasparov

and

Uriel Epshtein

from the Renewing Democracy Initiative. I’m hoping to host some of my own in the coming months with FIRE colleagues and friends, so keep an eye out!

FIRE in the press!

• Once, international students feared Beijing’s wrath. Now Trump is the threat (LA Times) by

  Sarah McLaughlin

Will our colleges and universities increase censorship and surveillance of international students? Avoid inviting commencement speakers disfavored by the Trump administration? Pressure academic departments against hiring any professors whose social media comments or areas of research will catch the eye of mercurial government officials?

And, equally disturbing, will they be willing to admit that they are now making these calculations at all? Unlike direct punishments by the Trump administration or Beijing, this chilling effect is likely to be largely invisible.

• FIRE’s Ryne Weiss on protecting freedom of speech on campus (The Overton Window Podcast)

People in power have a longstanding desire to shut down debate that challenges their views. And even though American colleges and universities are supposed to stand up for academic freedom and open debate, they have trampled on their students’ First Amendment rights.

Ryne Weiss

is doing something to change that. As director of research at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, he’s helping administrators do better at allowing students and faculty to talk about controversial matters.

London Calling: Ronnie’s First Amendment Roundup

Lipton v. Michigan State University Board of Trustees

Court holds Board of Trustees Chair and fellow member can’t get prof’s claims dismissed after they drummed up complaints and outcry against him for his comments as a private citizen on a matter of public concern.

Here’s an old-school FIRE case where a federal court allowed Professor Lipton’s First Amendment claim to proceed against the Chair and another member of MSU’s Board of Trustees after they retaliated against him for critical comments after a contentious and chaotic Board meeting that focused on the Chair’s alleged misconduct and whether she should resign.

Lipton alleged that after his comment, Vassar and the BOT colleague began a retaliation campaign by meeting with students to encourage them to publicly condemn Lipton and to file complaints of racial discrimination against him, and that they had their supporters and associates publish statements and op-eds calling him a racist, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Muslim.

According to a third-party investigator MSU hired, they advised students and supporters on how to attack Lipton for his statement, coordinating with them on the phrasing of these public condemnations and complaints. At the next BOT meeting, MSU students spoke out against Lipton after the Chair and BOT member invited them to participate in the meeting.

In allowing the case to proceed, the court held public officials cannot insulate themselves from violating the First Amendment simply by manipulating others to engage in retaliatory conduct — particularly when they leverage their public positions to do so — and that “[t]hese attacks (i.e., public condemnations, op-eds, and official complaints) through proxies are independent constitutional violations” and “actions designed to threaten a person's economic livelihood” that are “likely to deter a person of ordinary firmness from engaging in protected speech.”

The court also denied the Chair and BOT member qualified immunity, holding it was clearly established “that, absent a disruption of government operations, a public university may not retaliate against a faculty member for speaking on issues of social or political concern,” while also allowing a prospective relief claim to go forward where “Lipton has alleged facts that suggest [the Chair] Vassar continues to retaliate against him for his protected speech and is unlikely to stop without injunctive relief.”

Also this week, Jenner & Block and WilmerHale had TROs against President Trump’s executive orders targeting the firms ripen into permanent injunctions (read the amicus briefs FIRE joined), and in Mahmoud Khalil’s ongoing case, the court held he established likelihood of success on his due process vagueness claim against Secretary Rubio's foreign policy ground for deportation, and requested additional briefing on likely success for the government's later-offered justification citing purported deficiencies in Khalil’s immigration paperwork (read the brief filed by FIRE and its co-amici).

International free speech stories of the week

• Journalist reports intelligence services could target critics, sparking official denial — and alleged hack attempts (Buenos Aires Herald)

• Prosecuting man for burning Qur’an ‘reintroducing blasphemy law’, UK court told (The Guardian)

Podcast of the month

The Enemies of Free Speech (w/ Greg Lukianoff & Nadine Strossen)

It was an honor and a pleasure to join

Adaam James Levin-Areddy

on his podcast Uncertain Things with my colleague (I still can’t believe I am lucky enough to get to say that) and FIRE senior fellow

Nadine Strossen

to discuss our upcoming book, “The War on Words: 10 Arguments Against Free Speech—And Why They Fail,” out July 1!

I went pretty deep on philosophy in this one, and while I don’t think I was eloquent, it was a lot of fun.