Category:Free Speech
Court to North Carolina State: Stop Requiring Students to Get a License to Speak
June 17, 2016 | Post
Those trying to curtail free speech often invoke its very limited exceptions to achieve their goals. For example, they often point to legitimate restrictions of speech based on “time, place, and manner.” This limited legal restriction to free speech allows police to, say, prevent public speech with a loudspeaker from occurring at 2 a.m. because […]
J.K. Rowling: Trump’s Freedom to Speak Protects My Right to Call Him a Bigot
June 4, 2016 | Post
Disagreeing with what someone has to say but defending his or her right to say it is the foundational defense of free speech. English writer Evelyn Beatrice Hall sums it up well when she says: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”] This view […]
Does Citizens United Protect Your Freedom of Speech?
May 28, 2016 | Video
Has Citizens United protected your freedom of speech? Or has it made it so that our democracy is overrun by corporate interests?
Desperate Students to College Administrators: Stop Being Paternalistic Babysitters
May 27, 2016 | Post
If you’ve been part of any conversation about American higher education recently, you might have heard someone complain that colleges and universities are morphing from educators to babysitters. Now, students at Dartmouth College are fighting back against the perceived shift. Leaders of the school’s student government delivered a scathing petition, signed by 1,200 students, demanding […]
"Dislike" Facebook's Suppression of Free Speech
May 11, 2016 | Post
This week’s allegations that Facebook has systemically suppressed conservative speech on its news feed has rankled many users who believed they were being showed an unbiased list of “trending stories.” For some background, a report by trusted technology news source Gizmodo quoted several former Facebook employees whose job was to curate content and manage the highly-viewed and […]
The Danger of Safe Spaces
May 11, 2016 | Post
In a recent commencement address at the University of Michigan, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was booed after criticizing campus safe spaces. As Yahoo News reported: The whole purpose of college is to learn how to deal with difficult situations — not run away from them,” Bloomberg told the school’s graduating class. “One […]
Tis the Season of Disinvitation
May 6, 2016 | Post
Jason Riley, esteemed Wall Street Journal columnist and frequent commentator on the issues facing black Americans, was disinvited from his planned commencement speech at Virginia Tech this week. The department head and other faculty members had concerns about his writings on race, which focus on how government policy that is supposed to help black people […]
What Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Means for Free Speech Today
April 29, 2016 | Post
OK, so let’s say the $h!t finally hits the fan. Imagine that whomever you think would be the worst possible president has just been elected. Further, imagine that he has made clear, “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother,” or that anyone who didn’t cooperate with his plans would “pay a big price.” Would you […]
Is Drawing a Penis Sexual Misconduct?
April 22, 2016 | Post
Like it or not, drawing penises is a time-honored college tradition just like pulling all-nighters and playing drinking games. But when a University of Delaware student drew a penis on a giant beach ball in a free expression exercise, he was told by campus police that it violated the school’s sexual misconduct policies. It’s certainly […]
Freedom of Speech on Campus: "All Lives Matter" vs. "Black Lives Matter"
April 14, 2016 | Post
A recent incident at American University’s School of Law highlights just how divisive the issue of campus speech has become. As the Washington Post reported, it began with a note: Earlier this month, someone left a hand-written flier on the door of a faculty member’s office at American University’s Washington College of Law that read, […]
New Gallup Survey: 73% of College Students Don’t Think Free Speech Is Being Threatened
April 8, 2016 | Post
A new Gallup survey, sponsored by the John S. and James Knight Foundation and the Newseum Institute, compiled 3,072 phone interviews with college students and 2,031 interviews with adults to study how Americans feel about free speech. The findings? Apparently, 73 percent of college students thought that their ability to freely express themselves was secure. […]
5 Misunderstandings Safe Space Advocates Have About Free Speech
April 1, 2016 | Post
April Fools! Learn Liberty is back in charge, and everything the Department of Careful Communications (DCC) said about censoring and redacting our content is moot. The DCC targeted us because it was worried that some of our communications might offend or misrepresent some people—or lead to confusion or disorder. Specifically, the DCC criticized: Our Speak […]
DCC Steps in to Correct Traumatic Effects of Learn Liberty’s Comments on Feminism
April 1, 2016 | Post
April Fools! Learn Liberty is back in charge, and everything the Department of Careful Communications (DCC) said about censoring and redacting our content is moot. Learn Liberty believes that the most effective way to challenge assumptions and refine ideas in a free society is to engage in respectful but frank dialogue—conversations in which we are […]
The Danger of Safe Spaces
February 13, 2016 | Post
Yale University is ground zero for the free speech debate. Last Halloween, a professor was verbally attacked for having the temerity to say student should be able to express themselves through their Halloween costumes. Last week, two faculty members took to the pages of the New York Times to discuss the implication of the attack […]
Freedom of Speech: What Is Your Opinion? #SpeakFreely
November 24, 2015 | Video
Does free speech offend you? Do you believe that freedom of Speech gives you the freedom to speak your opinion? Professor Howard Baetjer from Townson University is asking college students from different campuses to take the Free Speech Challenge. #SpeakFreely What is your most controversial opinion? Let us know in the comment section and use […]
Is Offensive Speech Good for Society?
October 27, 2015 | Post
Is there any speech you think should be restricted? Should we have laws to protect people from being offended? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Featured On Demand Program of the Week: Free Speech
October 26, 2015 | Post
Learn Liberty On Demand offers you a series of videos on new and exciting topics in the world of policy and ideas that you can watch any time, anywhere, on your schedule. Have you ever wondered if Free Speech has its limits? Well, this is the place for you. You’ve got freedom of speech, but […]
Open Inquiry Is Integral to the University Experience
October 15, 2015 | Post
Increasingly, the expectation of rigorous debate and discussion on controversial topics has diminished on college campuses across the nation. Students are now more content or even encouraged to coast through higher education without having to encounter beliefs or opinions that offend their preconceived notions about the world. Students are treating the college experience as less […]
Freedom of Speech: Why We NEED Academic Freedom
September 17, 2015 | Video
What are the threats to free speech and free inquiry on college campuses today? Academic Freedom—the ability to freely pursue knowledge and inquiry on campus—is under attack, and it’s important for students to push back. This is video explains why academic freedom matters. Academic freedom means the right of everyone in the academic community to […]
Freedom of Speech: Why Are Sex and Comedy Censored?
September 10, 2015 | Video
Should comedic and sexual speech be censored on college campuses? While universities often like to show themselves as being progressive by supporting sex-positive speech, they are also increasingly clamping down on sexually explicit speech, imagery and even jokes. Countless examples abound, but at one college in Alaska, students were investigated for months for running an April […]
Is There Freedom of Speech in College?
September 8, 2015 | Video
Should you have freedom of speech on college campus? Have you ever been told you need a permit or special permission to hold an event or demonstration on campus? Though we don’t think of them as government representatives the way we do police officers or legislators, administrators at taxpayer-funded universities are public officials bound by […]
Freedom of Speech: Does Free Speech Help Minorities?
August 25, 2015 | Video
What would you give for your freedom of speech? We explore a crash course in civil rights and free speech. Click Here to Learn More When people call for censorship they often argue that offensive speech is harmful to the vulnerable and oppressed, but the reality is that a system of robust uninhibited free speech […]
Freedom of Speech: How Is Offensive Speech Good For Society?
June 29, 2015 | Video
The First Amendment protects the freedom of speech and has been upheld by the Supreme Court more than once. But with occurrences like Charlies Hebdo and other incidents of racist, obscene, and hateful speech occurring, should this protection still apply? As Professor Tom W. Bell explains, it was unfavorable speech that not only allowed individuals […]
This Prof. will Challenge your Perspective on Free Speech
December 13, 2013 | Video
Everybody loves free speech, right? It’s in the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But Prof. Deirdre McCloskey complicates the picture of free speech by associating it with the Greek word for persuasion: rhetoric. Free speech and advertising go hand in hand. Advertisements and rhetoric both have a negative connotation, but they are essential to […]