In a statement e-mailed to faculty and other members of the university community, Case Western Reserve University President Barbara Snyder and Provost Bud Baeslack forcefully rejected calls for an academic boycott of Israel. As they note, academic boycotts of this sort run contrary to principles of academic freedom and “seek to subvert one of higher […]
Archive | Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
Student Dismissed Partly Because His Expressed “Views … Were Deemed Not in Alignment” with Government Standards
Here’s yet another brief that the UCLA First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic has filed in the last few weeks. This brief is in a Ninth Circuit university student dismissal case, and it’s filed on behalf of the Foundation for Individual Rights and the Student Press Law Center, in Oyama v. University Hawaii (the link is […]
Campus Videorecording and Bans on “Harassment” and “Intimidation”
By Eugene Volokh on November 12, 2013 12:23 am in Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Freedom to Gather Information
As the previous post noted, I’m passing along another brief that the UCLA First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic has filed in the last few weeks. This one is on behalf of the Student Press Law Center and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, in O’Brien v. Welty (9th Cir.) (the link is to the […]
No Leafleting at a University Without Several Days’ Notice
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports: University of Alabama police have ordered a pro-choice student group to cease distributing informational flyers on campus in response to another group’s pro-life event, and threatened members with arrest for failing to comply with its orders…. As The Crimson White, UA’s student newspaper, reported on April 17, […]
The Administration Says Universities Must Implement Broad Speech Codes
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is telling universities to institute speech codes. And not just any old speech codes: Under these speech codes, universities would be required to prohibit students from, for instance, saying “unwelcome” “sexual or dirty jokes” spreading “unwelcome” “sexual rumors” (without any […]
Speaking Engagements This Week
By Dale Carpenter on April 21, 2013 4:25 pm in Flagrant Conduct: Lawrence v. Texas, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
On Monday I’ll be speaking before the ACS chapter at Yale Law School on the topic, “What Has Lawrence Meant? Litigation and LGBT Rights on the Tenth Anniversary of Lawrence v. Texas.” The presentation will be in Rm. 129 from 1-2 p.m. On Tuesday I’ll be speaking at Minnesota State University-Mankato on “The Role of […]
“Jury Finds Former College President Personally Liable for $50,000 in Victory for Student Rights”
So reports FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), though note that it’s pretty likely that the former president would nonetheless end up being indemnified by his former employer or the employer’s insurance carrier: A federal jury today found former Valdosta State University (VSU) President Ronald M. Zaccari personally liable for $50,000 for violating […]
In re: Erik Loomis
By Jonathan H. Adler on December 20, 2012 12:34 am in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Freedom of Speech Restricted by Thugs
What Ken at Popehat said. UPDATE: David Henderson too.
Are Liberal or Conservative Americans More Likely to Support Restrictions on Racist and Anti-Religious Speech?
By Eugene Volokh on November 18, 2012 7:54 pm in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Liberal vs. Conservative Attitudes on Free Speech, Religion and the Law
Here’s data from the General Social Survey, limiting the years to 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 (with nearly 8000 total responses for each question), with respondents self-identifying as liberals, moderates, and conservatives. (I have flattened out the gradations within each category — extremely liberal/conservative, plain liberal/conservative, slightly liberal/conservative — partly because otherwise some […]
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Testimony on the First Amendment and Anti-Muslim/Anti-Islam Speech
By Eugene Volokh on November 9, 2012 3:15 pm in "Hate Speech", Blasphemy, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Freedom of Speech Restricted by Thugs, Hostile Environment Harassment Law
I was invited to testify on this subject at today’s U.S. Commission on Civil Rights briefing on Federal Civil Rights Engagement with the Arab and Muslim American Communities Post 9/11, so I thought I’d pass along my written remarks. You can read them in PDF form here, or in plain text below (though without the […]
Final Thoughts: Changing the Culture on Campus
By Greg Lukianoff, guest-blogging on November 2, 2012 6:50 pm in First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
This week I survived Hurricane Sandy, a massive tree covering the entire front of my house, an intermittent Internet connection, and even guest-blogging for The Volokh Conspiracy. For my last post, I wanted to end on a positive note. First, I wanted to let you all know that I am having a book event for […]
‘The New York Times’, Yale, and Sissygate
By Greg Lukianoff, guest-blogging on November 2, 2012 10:52 am in First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
Last week, I had the pleasure of having my first op-ed published in The New York Times, and I was pleased (and a little surprised) when the letters to the editor that were published the next day were overwhelmingly positive. The op-ed changed a lot during the editing process, evolving from what started as a […]
Private Religious Colleges and Free Speech
By Greg Lukianoff, guest-blogging on November 1, 2012 10:38 am in First Amendment, Freedom of Association, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
I have been guest blogging this week, and Eugene asked me to reserve some of my posts to respond to reader comments. From the moment that Eugene announced I would be posting, a few commenters have decided that the single most important thing FIRE should actually be fighting is the scourge of censorship-happy Christian colleges. […]
Only a Few Examples of Censorship on Campus?
By Greg Lukianoff, guest-blogging on October 31, 2012 6:10 pm in First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
A few commenters on my latest post for The Volokh Conspiracy have been riffing on the theme that the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE, where I work) is only able to show a few examples of censorship on campus, and therefore it must not be that big of a problem. Here’s my erudite […]
The Reality of College Censorship, Part 2: Speech Codes
By Greg Lukianoff, guest-blogging on October 31, 2012 9:45 am in First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
While the public seems to fondly believe that speech codes are a thing of the past — a bygone product of the “political correctness” movement of the 1980s and 1990s — they are alive and well on the modern college campus. As I explain in Unlearning Liberty, these days, you’re unlikely to open up a student handbook and […]