House passes historic legislation protecting free speech on college campuses

Should public colleges and universities do more to protect the First Amendment rights of students and faculty on campus? Today, the House of Representatives responded with an emphatic YES.

On a bipartisan vote this afternoon, the House passed what would be the most comprehensive federal statutory protections for free speech on campus ever. The legislation now heads to the Senate. The bill, which includes the Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act, requires public institutions of higher education to ensure their free speech policies align with Supreme Court precedent that protects students’ rights — regardless of their ideology or viewpoint. 

Protecting free speech on college campuses has always been central to FIRE’s mission. It has taken on even greater urgency over the past year as campuses across the country were rocked by protests over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with many responding by cracking down on expressive rights. Even Congress started out on the wrong foot, passing legislation that targeted protected speech on campus. As FIRE Executive Vice President Nico Perrino wrote to Congress and university administrators last December, the best path forward is not doubling-down on censorship and the inevitable double standards it creates, but ending it.

“The solution to this moral cowardice is not to expand the use of vague and overbroad harassment codes so that they apply in more cases,” Nico wrote. “Rather, administrators should eliminate these codes and defend free speech in all cases. No hypocrisy. No double standards.”

While FIRE continues to urge college administrators to abide by the First Amendment, thankfully the House has taken a step in the right direction.

FIRE to Congress, university presidents: Don’t expand censorship. End it.

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College administrators should eliminate speech codes and defend free speech in all cases. No hypocrisy. No double standards.

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The Respecting the First Amendment on Campus Act ends the use of so-called “free speech zones” that unconstitutionally quarantine student expression to tiny areas of campus, and protects students and student organizations from censorship in the form of excessive “security fees” for events. Finally, the bill requires both public and private institutions to disclose their free speech and freedom of association policies to students and faculty, and encourages institutions to adopt a policy statement recognizing that “free expression, open inquiry, and the honest exchange of ideas are fundamental to higher education.”

These are common-sense, widely adopted policies that ensure that student speech rights are protected while retaining flexibility for colleges to tailor their policies to the needs of the institution. Nor are they novel, unexpected, or onerous: at least 23 states have enacted some or all of the provisions in this bill.

If signed into law, this legislation will protect freedom of expression on hundreds of campuses across the country, affecting countless students in the future. Colleges and universities should be our society’s “factories” of knowledge, where students and faculty debate ideas, produce academic scholarship, and strive for the truth. They must not be conformity machines that silence those who dare to disagree. 

FIRE applauds the House for passing this legislation to protect free speech on our nation’s campuses.