Rushdie Returns! Title IX Strikes Again! The Manchurian Undergraduate! And more!

Bringing you the latest free speech news (4/21/2024)

Greetings, friends of free expression!

FIRE Senior Writer & Editor

Angel Eduardo

here, taking over while Greg Lukianoff is away and bringing you the latest free speech news for your 4/20 weekend.

Stories of the week

• This week the Department of Education released new Title IX regulations that threaten student free speech and due process rights. FIRE is on the case: STATEMENT: Title IX regs mean students less likely to receive justice

When administrators investigate the most serious kinds of campus misconduct, colleges should use the time-tested tools that make finding the truth more likely. But the new regulations no longer require them to do so. Rather than playing political ping-pong with student rights, the Department of Education should recognize that removing procedural protections for students is the exact opposite of fairness. 

• Also, don’t miss free speech hero Salman Rushdie on 60 Minutes discussing his new book, “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder,” the importance of free speech, and more.

Here’s a bonus clip of Rushdie on censorship in America:

This week in ERI

No new post this week, which makes it the perfect time to catch up on the archive!

Here are our three most popular posts:

• Abigail Shrier versus the Perfect Rhetorical Fortress

• Professor Mike Adams’ suicide still haunts me

• My First Amendment concerns with ‘The Anxious Generation’

International free speech story of the week

• Mayor Breed wants a Chinese university to set up in downtown S.F. by J.D. Morris

Commentary from FIRE’s Sarah McLaughlin on X:

I've written plenty about the academic freedom issues posed by US campuses in China. But this could certainly be a new campus free expression challenge: San Francisco's mayor wants China's Fudan University to open up a satellite campus — in downtown SF. It strains credulity to imagine that such a campus would operate under anything other than Chinese law or would have solid speech protections.

This week in FIRE’s blog

• Salman Rushdie criticizes left-wing censorship in CBS interview by Jordan Howell

• No, the Berkeley Law student didn’t have a First Amendment right to interrupt the dean’s backyard party by Jessie Appleby, Alex Morey, and Jordan Howell

• VICTORY: Michigan town declares Sept. 6 ‘First Amendment Day’ after FIRE sues its mayor for shouting down residents

• USC canceling valedictorian’s commencement speech looks like calculated censorship by Alex Morey

• FIRE survey shows Judge Duncan shoutdown had ‘chilling effect’ on Stanford students by Sean Stevens

• A third of Stanford students say using violence to silence speech can be acceptable

• Stanford president and provost cheer free expression in open letter to incoming class by Jordan Howell

• Western Washington University punishes racing team for sending photo of penis drawing on pizza box by Zach Greenberg

London Calling: Ronnie’s First Amendment Rundown

Per Meinecke v. City of Seattle, police can't join the mob — or, at least, can't tell you to scram just because your speech riles up an angry mob. Endorsing the Sixth Circuit Bible Believers v. Wayne County heckler's veto framework, the Ninth Circuit held police can't resort to censoring speakers as a first resort, as did Seattle Police in arresting (twice!) a street preacher confronted by antifascist protesters after he refused the officers’ instruction to leave — which they justified by saying he was the one endangering public safety by making people angry. As the Ninth Circuit confirmed, that police response was content based, inasmuch as it rested on listeners' anger at what the preacher had to say, and thus unconstitutional.

TV show of the month

If you’re a child of the 90s, like me, then I don’t have to tell you how awesome and ubiquitous the X-Men Animated Series was. Its new incarnation on Disney+, X-Men ‘97, picks up where the old series left off — and it is fan-friggin’-tastic so far.

I can’t recommend it enough. Be warned, though: Episode 5 is a real gut punch.