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Each passing year gets busier and busier for ��֭����, and this year was no different. The numbers alone say a lot: With a current caseload of 34 litigation cases and 300 more non-litigation advocacy matters, 50 amicus brief submissions, and 21,500 media mentions (and counting!) under our belt, FIREis bringing the heat everywhere. 

Our big — and growing! — community of supporters enabled us to go big and be bold, to stand up to bullies, to stand up for everyday Americans, and to fight for that precious right to free speech that we all love and cherish. We are proud to serve as the nation's premier free speech watchdog and achieve victories like those highlighted below.

In Court

FIRE notched major litigation victories this year, proving our prowess in court as America's leading First Amendment defender.

We argued and won a federal appeal for a professor sanctioned for criticizing his college's lowering of academic standards, and won a settlement for a pharmacy student expelled for posting song lyrics. We also persuaded a court to halt a new Texas law that bars all expressive activity on campus after 10 p.m., and ensured California won't force community college faculty to endorse DEI principles.

Her grad school tried to expel her for a tweet about Cardi B. Now they’ll pay a $250K lawsuit settlement

Kim Diei's settlement is a warning to colleges around the country: If you police students’ personal online expression, there will be consequences.

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We got a high schooler's record expunged, his school's "hate speech" policy amended, and a monetary settlement after he was suspended simply for posting a "meme rap" song on personal time away from school; and achieved victory on behalf of town residents when we fought and won a repeal of an ordinance restricting the holiday decorations they could display.

Our current docket includes a challenge to Immigration and Nationality Act provisions used to deport lawfully present noncitizens simply for speech the government dislikes. We are also defending a retired police officer jailed for 37 days for posting a Facebook meme, and an Iowa pollster, Ann Selzer, against President Trump's ongoing lawsuit (we already won a dismissal of a separate class action making the same claims). Our docket also includes a return trip to the Supreme Court on behalf of a Texas citizen reporter jailed for newsgathering, and a challenge by an elected school board member barred by New Jersey law from engaging with her constituents. 

We are currently awaiting appellate decisions in our challenge to Florida's STOP WOKE Act, our suit for animal rights activists arrested for "offensive" industrial-farming videos, our lawsuit on behalf of students who wore "Let's Go Brandon" garb to junior high, and our challenges to various state social media restrictions.

In Briefs

These are just some of the cases our team of in-house First Amendment attorneys are litigating directly, but we can't forget the 50 amicus briefs filed to advance the law. 

Over the year, we participated in multiple cases opposing government efforts to deport lawfully present noncitizen students for expression and viewpoints the administration disfavors; objected (while noting longstanding concerns with the state of free speech at their institutions) to the government's efforts to withhold funding and interfere in governance and academic freedom at Harvard and Columbia; and opposed government efforts to censor individuals for sharing views on transgender athletes in high school sports.

FIRE also fought for the right to anonymous speech by challenging actions requiring adults to turn over their government IDs to access online content, and we filed a brief in Garcia v. Character Technologies, a leading-edge case on First Amendment protection for artificial intelligence.

Out-of-Court Advocacy

Demonstrating our ability to defend expressive rights without ever setting foot in court, FIREnotched nearly 80 victories defending the First Amendment rights of everyday Americans in 2025. 

As usual, our cases ran the gamut from defending a student threatened with discipline for wearing a TPUSA hat, to rallying the residents of a New Jersey town to defeat an ordinance requiring a $2 million insurance policy if residents wanted to demonstrate, to fighting for a student journalist who was kicked off campus for publishing criticism of the campus administration. 

At the Institute of American Indian Arts, criticism of school officials is ‘bullying’

Administrators kicked the Young Warrior’s editor out of student housing and put him on probation for publishing student work critical of school officials.

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Campus Reform 

In 1999, we started our work on campus because the American university is ground zero for censorship. It's the place where we see illiberal trends emerge and generations indoctrinated with "free speech for me but not for thee" attitudes. It's vital we defend and promote the values of free expression on campus so we can secure them for our country and Americans everywhere.

This year, FIREmet with dozens of campus leaders, resulting in the reform of more than 30 campus policies impacting over 1 million students. We added four new institutions to our list of "green light" schools that maintain no restrictive speech policies, making this the first school year in our history when we tracked more schools that protect speech in their policies than schools that significantly restrict it.

And, FIREcontinues to shape the next generation of free speech leaders. We hosted 22 interns, 14 legal clerks, 100 undergrads at our Student Network Summer Conference, and 200 high schoolers at our second annual week-long summer camp, the Free Speech Forum. Our programs are free to attend and leave young people inspired. Here's what just one had to say: 

Before FIRE. . . I could not engage in a civil conversation over controversial topics. After ��֭����, I've had many civil conversations over the same or different topics. What's different? I listen, I ask, then I speak.

Thought Leadership 

Guiding the national conversation back to nonpartisan free speech principles, FIREwas everywhere this year, warning politicians across the political spectrum that practicing censorship will , combating the , and explaining that "hate speech" is protected speech. Our staffers placed op-eds in leading publications like The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, and Reason; and The New York Times ran a  of FIREand featured FIREPresident and CEO Greg Lukianoff on an episode of .

Greg was on the speaking circuit nonstop this year. The highlight was his , which introduced hundreds of thousands to ��֭����'s mission. Check it out if you haven't yet! 

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Thank You!

As a nonprofit organization, these achievements are only possible thanks to the generosity of our supporters. If you've already donated this year, please know that we sincerely appreciate your support. If you haven't yet, please consider joining our growing movement of principled, before the end of the year.