Tag: free speech
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 […]
Efforts Redoubled to Stop Subversive Citizens Who Express Dissatisfaction with Government Health Care
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 […]
Learn Liberty to Become Safe Space
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 […]
President Obama Visits Cuba, Promotes Freedom
March 30, 2016 | Post
This month, President Obama visited Cuba, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to do so since 1959. The President has been criticized for normalizing the U.S. relationship with Cuba, in light of the country’s Communist regime and human rights abuses. That list of abuses, according to a 2015 report by Human Rights Watch, includes arbitrary […]
Tiny Sombreros and Even Smaller Free Expression Protections
March 28, 2016 | Post
Two members of the student government at Bowdoin College faced impeachment proceedings for committing an “act of ethnic stereotyping” because they attended a party where some guests wore tiny sombreros. It’s the kind of story that will make you want to reach for the tequila. But it’s also one that is unfortunately all too common […]
Social Justice Warriors Need Free Speech
March 25, 2016 | Post
Advocates of social justice have actively fought against free expression in recent years because of the alleged negative emotional impact it can have on marginalized people. In their effort to stifle speech they disagree with, they’ve called for the imposition of trigger warnings and safe spaces, as though they have a right to not be […]
Free Speech and Censorship: No Swastikas for The Producers
March 24, 2016 | Post
Reason reported last week that a high school production of The Producers has been forbidden from using swastikas: The New York school district that oversees Tappan Zee High School considers the inclusion of a swastika to be offensive and, possibly, a hate crime—regardless of the context. “There is no context in a public high school […]
Micro-aggression and Macro-aggression
March 3, 2016 | Post
“The best response to micro-aggression is macro-aggression.” So says Cal State University Los Angeles Professor Robert Weide in response to an editor from the news website Breitbart giving a speech before students at Cal State University. Let’s unpack that statement, shall we? Micro-aggressions, defined as real or perceived everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, […]
Can We Really Learn From Hate Speech?
February 25, 2016 | Post
When Williams College President, Adam Falk, cancelled John Derbyshire’s campus speech, many in the school community hailed the decision. The controversially conservative writer is known for his strong, and sometimes abrasive, stances on issues like multiculturalism and immigration. But unlike his classmates, sophomore Zachary Wood called the President’s decision “not merely injudicious, but undemocratic, irresponsible, […]
Federal Judge Scores Pro-Marijuana Advocates a Free Speech Win at Iowa State
February 11, 2016 | Post
It’s not all gloom and doom for free speech on college campuses through the United States. For instance, a federal judge just ordered administrators at Iowa State to stop censoring a pro-marijuana legalization group’s t-shirts in a free speech win. Jacob Sullum of Reason writes: In October 2012, the ISU chapter of the National Organization for the […]
Can you be sued for your political newspaper ad?
February 3, 2016 | Post
The Institute for Justice released a great video last week which describes just one of their cases regarding political speech. They point out how laws restricting freedom of speech, especially political speech, can have a negative impact on political dialog—and that the people who have the most to gain from these laws are politicians themselves. […]
What You Probably Haven't Heard About Citizens United
February 2, 2016 | Post
Did the Supreme Court decision in the case Citizens United vs. FEC really sell out democracy to corporations? Professor Bradley Smith disagrees and explains why treating corporations as persons for purposes of the law is important and beneficial for society in this Learn Liberty video.
Featured On Demand Program of the Week: Citizens Divided
February 1, 2016 | Post
How much do you really know about the electoral process? In this program, we take a fresh look at elections and voting and address some of the common misconceptions. Did the Citizens United case really make corporations people? Should we ban money in politics? How can Super PACs and political ads improve democracy, while a […]
Censors Getting High on Their Own Authority
February 1, 2016 | Post
Forbidden to wear a t-shirt featuring a plant leaf? Isn’t this the Land of the Free? A U.S. District Court in Iowa agrees. It recently upheld the First Amendment rights of a student group at Iowa State University after administrators tried to stop them from wearing t-shirts featuring images of marijuana leaves. School officials, according […]
What would Martin Luther King, Jr. think of today’s limits on free speech?
January 22, 2016 | Post
As America celebrates the life and work of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is important to remember all the work MLK did for free speech on behalf of minorities. The day before his assassination in 1968, King delivered a speech in which he highlighted the importance of First Amendment rights in the civil rights […]
Compulsory Union Dues Before the Supreme Court
January 21, 2016 | Post
Reason Magazine is reporting on the beginning of oral arguments in the case Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association before the Supreme Court. Todd Krainin writes: “The unions force me to fund collective bargaining efforts that are harmful to my students,” declared plaintiff Rebecca Friedrichs on the steps of the Supreme Court. “And that’s offensive to […]
Roman Phalluses Sink Professor
January 14, 2016 | Post
Academic free speech is in serious jeopardy. And censorship doesn’t only hurt students—it also silences the professors who oversee and guide the flow of dialogue in the classroom. A former professor at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota found that out the hard way. David Hillman, a drama instructor, helped out with school plays before he […]