Table of Contents
Penn State Settles Lawsuit
Today, the Alliance Defense Fund announced that it has , which agreed to drop its speech code and clarify other policies. Congratulations to ADF and to our former president and Legal Network attorney David French!
Penn State did the right thing by settling the lawsuit and recognizing its duty to obey the Constitution. But, at the same time, it is important to note that universities shouldn’t have to face the threat of a lawsuit in order to compel changes to patently unconstitutional policies.
Hopefully, this will serve as a wake up call to the hundreds of other “red light” public universities identified in Spotlight: The Campus Freedom Resource. If college presidents don’t want to hear the knock of a federal marshal serving a lawsuit, they would be wise to immediately reassess their unconstitutional policies.
Recent Articles
FIRE’s award-winning Newsdesk covers the free speech news you need to stay informed.
Supreme Court case upholding age-verification for online adult content newly references 'partially protected speech,' gives it lesser First Amendment scrutiny
In FSC v. Paxton, the Court lowers First Amendment protections for adult sites, upholding Texas’ age-verification law and coining a new category — “partially protected speech.”
All that glitters is not gold: A brief history of efforts to rebrand social media censorship
Lawmakers are rebranding online speech regulations as child safety or consumer protection, but the First Amendment isn’t fooled. This piece unpacks the censorship hiding behind the spin.
Missouri governor signs legislation securing students’ rights to freely associate on campus
A new law protects campus groups’ freedom to set their own membership rules — affirming students don’t leave the First Amendment at the campus gate.
Purdue fails its own test on institutional neutrality
Purdue claimed neutrality — until a student paper challenged it. But pressuring the paper to change its name is not neutrality. It’s censorship.