ACLU Executive Director speaks at second recent event on progressive free speech

May 08, 2023 1 min read

ACLU Executive Director speaks at second recent event on progressive free speech

by Olivia Sanchez, Daily Princetonian 

Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Anthony Romero ’87 discussed the importance of the First Amendment at the final Princeton Progressive Law Society (PPLS) event of the 2022-23 academic year.

This is the second major event that the group has hosted recently emphasizing the importance of free speech. University President Christopher L. Eisgruber ’83 spoke last week with PPLS advocating for free speech as a progressive value.


Leave a comment


Also in National Free Speech News & Commentary

Survey: 91 Percent of College Students Think 'Words Can Be Violence.' That Could Feed Real Violence.

December 11, 2025 1 min read

J.D. Tuccille
Reason 

Of all the stupid ideas that have emerged in recent years, there may be none worse than the insistence that unwelcome words are the same as violence. This false perception equates physical acts that can injure or kill people with disagreements and insults that might cause hurt feelings and potentially justifies responding to the latter with the former. 

After all, if words are violence, why not rebut a verbal sparring partner with an actual punch? Unfortunately, the idea is embedded on college campuses where a majority of undergraduate students agree that words and violence can be the same thing.

Read More
Berkeley Suspends Lecturer for Pro-Palestinian Comments, Hunger Strike

December 11, 2025 1 min read

Emma Whitford
Inside Higher Ed

The University of California, Berkeley, suspended lecturerPeyrin Kao without pay for the spring semester because he made pro-Palestinian political comments during class. 

Kao, a lecturer in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, participated in a 38-day hunger strike this fall to protest the use of technology in what he called Israel’s genocide in Gaza. He allegedly told students during class that he was undergoing a “starvation diet” and directed them to his website to learn more about why he was striking.

Read More
Texas Tech Begins to Collect Info on Race, Gender Course Content

December 11, 2025 1 min read

EmmaWhitford
Inside Higher Ed

As promised in a memo from the chancellor earlier this month, some Texas Tech University system faculty members were asked this week to report whether any course they teach “advocates for or promotes” specific race, gender or sexual identities. It is the latest step in a sweeping curricular review focused on limiting discussion of transgender identity, racism and sexuality across the five-campus public system.

Read More