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Research & Learn

Explore ��֭��'s library of resources and research on free speech and other civil liberties.

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Illustration of crowd protesting with red tape on their mouths

Issue Pages

How and why the Constitution does not allow prior restraint

��֭��’s position is that colleges and universities should never seek editorial control over student newspapers.

Contract papers with brass scale on desk in office justice and law concept picture with film grain effect.jpg

Issue Pages

Viewpoint neutrality and student fees on campus

Mandatory fees, the funding of student groups, and the often arbitrary standards by which such funding occurs raise issues of the highest constitutional and moral importance.

Illustration of college students sitting in lecture hall with a professor teaching

Issue Pages

Faculty speech rights at public universities

Faculty members are often shocked to learn that many of the same rules that apply to employees of the postal service also apply to professors at public universities.

Illustration of students sitting on university lecture hall with a professor writing on a blackboard

Issue Pages

Academic freedom of professors and colleges

The best protection from restrictions on faculty classroom speech may come not from the First Amendment, but from the school’s individual academic freedom policy.

Woman protests against sexual harassment illustration concept

Issue Pages

Sexual harassment at private colleges

Private colleges are allowed to establish strict rules governing student conduct, as long as their regulations do not violate anti-discrimination laws or other statutes.

Construction helmet and worker safety glasses on table indicating legal protection

Issue Pages

State protections for speech at private colleges

Too often, students and student groups at private colleges and universities face discipline not for conduct, but for so-called “offensive” speech.

Illustration standard procedure concept rules and regulations checklist

Issue Pages

Procedural protections in academic cases

Student misconduct cases involving academic issues, such as grading and plagiarism, require lesser procedural protections because universities have greater leeway to make academic determinations.

Illustration of books and documents indicating rules and due process

Issue Pages

Procedural fairness at private universities

Even when a private college does not promise fair practices in its student handbook, other legal doctrines beyond contract law are available.

Computer screen showing a gavel scales of justice and books indicating the legal process and procedural fairness

Issue Pages

Due process at public universities

FIREfacing possible suspension or expulsion from public colleges and universities are entitled to due process protections because their liberty and property are at stake.

Close up of investigation board with map pinned evidences and red thread connecting clues

Issue Pages

Standards of proof and campus due process

There are broad limits to the university’s right to convict an individual on little or virtually no evidence.

Man and woman dressed in suits walking down steps of a courthouse building

Issue Pages

What free speech rights do government employees have?

Does the First Amendment protect public employees when they speak? It depends.

Dozens of election campaign yard signs planted in grass in Suwanee, Georgia

Issue Pages

Your yard, your rights: Lawn signs and the First Amendment

Local governments may regulate sign displays in some ways, but the First Amendment protects residents from viewpoint-based or arbitrary restrictions.

Collage of publisher Emma Goldman behind bars that look like the American flag

Issue Pages

The Deported: Emma Goldman and activist persecution under the 1917 Espionage Act

More than 100 years ago, the government targeted an anti-war activist and publisher for speaking out against the draft and removed her from the country. Her name was Emma Goldman.

Person at a computer with a digital display showing advertisements

Issue Pages

Commercial speech: Should it still receive unique constitutional treatment?

Commercial speech — the legal term for advertising — does not receive the same First Amendment protection as political speech.

Young boy shouting on a megaphone in a protest

Issue Pages

Protected Speech

The Supreme Court has consistently held the First Amendment to protect much more than mere words to include many forms of expression.