The Academic Freedom Podcast is Back!
The podcast relaunches with a conversation with Cary Nelson
Academic Freedom
ABA Standard 208, Law Schools, and the First Amendment
New guidance makes explicit what should have been clear already: Standard 208 obligates law schools to embrace First Amendment principles.
Sixth Circuit Denies Qualified Immunity for State University Officials Who Allegedly Violated Professor's First Amendment Rights
Officials allegedly retaliated against a professor who expressed politically controversial statements about the best treatments for gender dysphoria among youth.
Private Universities That Reject First Amendment Principles Put Themselves At Legal Risk (Updated)
Conforming speech policies to the First Amendment would serve private universities well, legally and otherwise.
Florida Public Colleges Ordered To Check Courses for 'Anti-Israel Bias'
Officials ordered schools to review all courses with descriptions or syllabi that contain words such as Israel, Palestine, and Jewish.
70 Percent of College Students Say Speech Can Be as Damaging as Physical Violence
A new survey from the Knight Foundation found that more than 1 in 4 college students agreed schools should prohibit "speech they may find offensive or biased."
A Frightening View of Free Speech and Academic Freedom at Harvard
A Harvard Dean suggests universities can and should limit controversial speech.
Harvard To Stop Requiring DEI Statements for Many Faculty Positions
Harvard is taking steps away from politicization. Will other schools follow?
Harvard Announces It Will Stop Releasing Political Statements
Following months of campus protests over the war between Israel and Hamas, the university has announced that it will no longer weigh in on current events.
My New Book on Academic Freedom Now Available
You Can't Teach That! is in fine bookstores now
Bipartisan Legislation Would Let the Government Create Speech-Chilling 'Antisemitism Monitors'
The bill would allow the Education Department to effectively force colleges to suppress a wide range of protected speech.
Universities Use DEI Statements To Enforce Groupthink
DEI statements are political litmus tests.
Campus Speech Restrictions Come Back To Bite Universities
Plus: A listener asks if there is any place libertarians can go to start their own country or city state.
Salman Rushdie: 'Literature Is Powerful, Writers Are Fragile'
"If we can't trust ourselves as a culture to accommodate ideas we don't like," the novelist said at the Library of Congress, "then our ideas lose their value as well, because they become authoritarian."
More on Controversial Books at Princeton
A member of Congress weighs in, and the university president speaks out
The Freedom to Assign Controversial Books
An Israeli minister demands that Princeton University prohibit a professor from assigning a controversial book
How Does Intramural Speech Fit Within the First Amendment?
A response to Porter v. North Carolina State University
Expert Witness Redux in California
State tries to bar Stanford researchers from testifying against it
Academic Freedom Alliance Letter to Texas A&M
Professor suspended for criticizing policies of Texas lieutenant governor
A Professor Criticized a Public Official. Then Her University Suspended Her.
Texas A&M placed a professor on paid leave for criticizing Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in a lecture on the opioid crisis.
74 Percent of College Students Support Snitching on Professors Who Make 'Offensive' Statements
Blame university administrators.
Texas A&M's Treatment of Journalism Director Raises Academic Freedom Concerns
Political appointees should have no role in faculty hiring decisions.
A Loss for Academic Freedom in the Fourth Circuit
Is "intramural" professorial speech protected by the First Amendment?
Firing a Professor for 'Left-Wing' Views Is Unconstitutional
But Chris Rufo bragged about breaking the law anyway.
Academic Freedom Alliance Statement on Mayo Clinic
Doctor sanctioned for comments to journalists about transgender athletes
College Debate Team Comes Out Against Debate
James Madison University's debate team says that "free speech should not extend to requiring us to platform or amplify ideas that are exclusionary, discriminatory, or hostile."
Cornell's President Defends Free Speech Against Illiberal Impulses
Martha Pollack rejects the pernicious premise that universities should protect students from offensive ideas.
State "Higher Ed Reform" Roundup: Tennessee
How bad is that divisive concepts bill?
State "Higher Ed Reform" Roundup: Texas
Legislative showdown looming on tenure and academic freedom
State "Higher Ed Reform" Roundup: North Dakota
North Dakota attack on tenure barely defeated
Christopher Rufo Wants To Shut Down 'Activist' Academic Departments. Here's Why He's Wrong.
"Professors are not mouthpieces for the government," says FIRE's Joe Cohn. "For decades, the Supreme Court of the United States has defended professors' academic freedom from governmental intrusion."
A Florida Bill To Censor Professors Just Got Even Worse
The bill now bans a battery of poorly-defined "Critical Theory" concepts, and prevents schools from funding programs that promote "diversity, equity, and inclusion."
What is at Stake in Florida Higher Ed Reform Bill?
A poorly drafted and conceptually ambitious upending of norms of state university independence
Higher Education "Reform" in Florida
Some of the proposals pose real threats to free inquiry
Ron DeSantis Wants To Cultivate 'Viewpoint Diversity' by Censoring Universities
Florida's H.B. 999 claims to support "viewpoint diversity" and "intellectual rigor." It does just the opposite.
After Muslim Students Complained That an Art Exhibit Was 'Harmful,' Macalester College Shut It Down
"My artwork is unapologetic," said the artist. "Sometimes it can be very political. Sometimes it can be very controversial."
DEI Inc. v. Academic Freedom
Amna Khalid and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder argue that we should not kid ourselves about the threat university DEI bureaucracies pose to academic freedom, but is there a better way?
