Supporting Students Free Expression

Gregory Kearney and Joshua Rauh
Liberty Lens, Substack

Excerpt: In recent years, America’s leadership class has become increasingly antagonistic toward long-standing norms around free speech. As we laid out in one of our recent pieces, government bureaucrats have increasing endorsed the use of censorship under the guise of protecting Americans from so-called mis- and disinformation.

In this piece, we focus specifically on some of the reasons for this shift in stated values and that shift’s impact on those who dare to dissent from elite orthodoxy particularly within academia.

Jacob Mchangama
Persuasion

Excerpt: Open democracies should not retreat from the institutional and civic commitment to free expression, however ugly many of its current manifestations are. Freedom of expression serves its most important function at times of deep polarization, where the sense of righteous indignation tempts us to silence the viewpoints we hate with scant regard for the collateral damage to democracy, freedom, and tolerance that constitute the necessary precondition for social peace in diverse societies.

ACLU

Excerpt: In an open letter delivered to over 650 college and university leaders, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) expressed its strong opposition to any efforts to stifle free speech and association on college campuses, and urged universities to reject calls to investigate, disband, or penalize pro-Palestinian student groups for exercising their free speech rights. The letter follows a call to universities to investigate Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters for “material support for terrorism,” without citing any evidence of such support.

Richard Vedder
Minding the Campus

Excerpt: Arguably, American universities in many ways resemble somewhat unruly and disrespectful adolescents—they want to be comfortably sustained by their adult parents/financiers, but their increasingly deplorable behavior needs firmer adult supervision. Hence “outsiders” are becoming assertive, be it major donors to elite private schools or politicians at schools importantly dependent on government subsidies, especially our state universities.

Lindsie Rank
Foundation for Individual Rights in Expression

Excerpt: At Eastern Kentucky University, resident advisers are prohibited from speaking to reporters — no matter the subject of their interviews, no matter the perspective they share. EKU’s reason for this unconstitutional gag order? The First Amendment is too “difficult” for “young, student employee[s]” to understand.

Foundation for Individual Rights in Expression

Excerpt: The government cannot force public colleges to derecognize Students for Justice in Palestine chapters. That's just what State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, reportedly at the direction of Gov. Ron DeSantis, is trying to do.

There’s no indication from the chancellor’s letter that any action from Florida’s Students for Justice in Palestine groups went beyond expression fully protected by the First Amendment. This directive is a dangerous — and unconstitutional — threat to free speech. If it goes unchallenged, no one’s political beliefs will be safe from government suppression.