National Free Speech News & Commentary

Jonathan Turley
Jonathan Turley's Blog

Excerpt: A new poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression shows that only a fifth of the public believe that conservatives can exercise free speech on campuses.

While faculty members often brush aside objections to the erosion of free speech, this poll is consistent with the view of students. What is striking is that such polling and objections have made little difference to administrators and academics who continue to maintain a hostile environment for conservative or libertarian views.

Ariana Figueroa
NC Newsline

Excerpt: One of Thomasina Brown’s favorite books is a memoir about a girl who deals with the grief of losing her father and struggles with her sexual identity. Brown, a 16-year-old student at Nixa High School in Nixa, Missouri, said in an interview that she felt a connection with the book, as she grieved the loss of her own father and came to terms with her own queer identity.

That book, “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic,” is one of the more than 3,300 books that have been banned during the 2022-2023 school year, a 33% increase from the previous school year, according to a report by PEN America, a group that is dedicated to fighting book bans and advocates for the First Amendment.

Roger Ream
National Review

Excerpt: Once a place for the open exchange of ideas and honest debate, many U.S. college campuses no longer tolerate dissenting views expressed by students and professors.

This phenomenon, which has allowed dogma and ideology to supplant the search for truth, has taken root in college lecture halls, student governments, and campus newspapers. The trend has major implications for American life, as today’s students become tomorrow’s leaders. Its effects may be most clearly felt in a profession historically associated with reporting the facts and promoting diversity of opinion: American journalism. If unchecked, it will have both short- and long-term repercussions not just for future journalists but for the American experiment as a whole.

Max Blaisdell
Hyde Park Herald

Excerpt: Amid a wave of book bans around the country and a surge in white supremacist propaganda in Illinois, the University of Chicago is launching a new forum to promote free speech and encourage open debate.

The Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression will debut this week with a series of on-campus panels featuring a number of scholars, artists and political figures in conversation on a variety of controversial social and political topics. Taking place on Thursday, Oct. 5 and Friday, panels will include Chicago’s Amanda Williams, Cathy Cohen and David Axelrod.

Ryan Quinn
Inside Higher Ed

Excerpt: At the American Anthropological Association’s major annual meeting next month, five women from four countries were set to discuss gender and sex—and to criticize other academics’ views on these topics.

They titled this serious session something cheeky, with a Salt-N-Pepa song reference: “Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: Why biological sex remains a necessary analytic category in anthropology.” The association’s executive board has now canceled the panel, releasing a statement Thursday titled “No Place For Transphobia in Anthropology.” Ramona Perez, the association’s president, explained that after the preliminary program was published online Aug. 1, showing the panelists’ names, anthropologists from multiple fields raised concern.

Samuel J. Abrams
American Enterprise Institute

Excerpt: In a recent and heated discussion about how to address the progressive capture and toxic culture of fear and silence that has engulfed so many of our nation’s colleges and universities, I realized that almost everyone lost sight of how much progress has been made in just a few years.

It is not clear how Florida will play out or if the various institutes and schools being established around the nation will effectively turn the tide. But what is unquestionable is that in a relatively short period of time, the American polity has become aware that there is a problem with expression on college campuses and that states and various groups have mobilized around fixing this crisis.