Table of Contents
Professors Have Free Speech, Too
John Miller at Phi Beta Cons criticizes proposed legislation in Arizona that would impose fines and lawsuits on professors who express their support for “one side of a social, political, or cultural issue that is a matter of partisan controversy.” While FIRE as an organization does not officially support or oppose legislation, bills like this one are a bad idea that, as Mr. Miller says, only serve as “speech codes for professors.” We definitely aren’t a fan of speech codes. As evidenced by Spotlight, FIRE’s enormous database of university policies affecting free speech, the majority of college campuses have onerous regulations that restrict expressive activity that should be protected under the First Amendment. Apparently, Arizona thinks the solution is to extend the trumping of free expression to the professoriate as well.
Mr. Miller’s solution to the squelching of free speech is that “the American Association of University Professors and other groups that defend the academic freedom of the tenured class should extend their principles to students, stand beside FIRE, and attack speech codes that limit free speech.” We agree. The college campus should be a place for the unfettered exchange of ideas and opinions. Efforts by legislatures and administrations to reign in free expression do a disservice to the faculty they hire and the students under their academic care.
Recent Articles
FIRE’s award-winning Newsdesk covers the free speech news you need to stay informed.
Debating social media content moderation
Can free speech and content moderation on social media coexist? Jonathan Rauch and Ren?e DiResta discuss the complexities of content moderation on social media platforms. They explore how platforms balance free expression with the need to moderate...
Amy Wax is academic freedom's canary in the coal mine
Penn's chilling decision to punish the controversial professor calls tenure protections at private universities into question
What’s on deck for the upcoming Court term — First Amendment News 441
First Amendment News is a weekly blog and newsletter about free expression issues by Ronald K. L. Collins and is editorially independent from FIRE.
This is not a test: FIRE opposes FCC’s plan to regulate AI in political ads
The FCC appears to be gearing up for a regulatory power grab, looking for opportunities to plant its flag in a burgeoning new field.