National Free Speech News & Commentary

Jonathan Turley
Jonathan Turley’s Blog

Excerpt: In the 1930s, Bertolt Brecht asked “What if they gave a war and nobody came?”  As someone who has been a teacher for over 30 years, I find myself increasingly asking the same question as trust and enrollments fall in higher education. There has been a precipitous decline in enrollments across the country as universities worry about covering their costs without raising already high tuition rates. From 2010 to 2021, enrollments fell from roughly 18.1 million students to about 15.4 million.

There is also an increasing view of higher education as an academic echo chamber for far left agendas. For many, there is little appeal in going to campuses where you are expected to self-censor and professors reject your values as part of their lesson plans.

Ashleigh Fields
The Hill

Excerpt: Americans are placing less value on the First Amendment than they did four years ago, according to a new survey. A Freedom Forum report showed 58 percent of people say they would approve the First Amendment today, a 4-point drop from 2020.

Despite the decrease in importance, respondents said the right to free speech will influence their vote this fall. More than half of Americans in the Northeast said the First Amendment is relevant to their decision this fall, compared to 49 percent in the Midwest.

Emma Camp
Reason Magazine

Excerpt: The University of Maryland is now facing a lawsuit after unilaterally canceling all student expressive activities planned for October 7. The move came after the university received "numerous calls" expressing outrage over events organized by campus pro-Palestine groups to mark the anniversary of Hamas' massacre of more than 1,000 Israeli civilians last year.

Rebecca E. Karl
Academe Blog

Excerpt: The NYU administration dissimulates and even prevaricates. Our provost, our deans, and our spokesman have each proclaimed, publicly and behind closed doors, that the newly issued guidance on student speech, sprung upon the university on August 22, “changes nothing.” (Our president has gone AWOL, apparently remaining only in her own echo chamber.)

Despite the protestations, all signs are that things have changed fundamentally. In addition to the walling off of swathes of what used to be public gathering spaces on and near our campus, as well as the newly severe proscriptions on permitted assembly in or around university buildings, this new guidance doubles down on specific conflations. It broadly equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism and specifically names Zionism a “code word” for probable racist intent.

Pamela Paul
New York Times

Excerpt: Last week Jonathan Holloway, the president of Rutgers University, announced he would be stepping down at the end of this academic year — the latest in a series of university president departures.

Given the widespread discord and protests on campuses, the past academic year was tough for any college president. But unlike others who left their posts, like Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Claudine Gay of Harvard, Holloway isn’t leaving the kind of elite institution that tends to attract outraged headlines and ire. Nor was he resigning in a heated moment of backlash or scandal. So why did he do it?

John O. McGinnis
Law and Liberty

Excerpt: The past year has exposed deep-rooted problems on American college campuses, revealing just how political pressure distorts academic ideals. After Hamas’s brutal massacre of civilians and Israel’s forceful response, waves of pro-Palestine protests erupted, soon transforming into encampments that in some cases menaced Jewish students.

As we seek to understand the correct application of these principles to campus life, we are fortunate that David Rabban has just written Academic Freedom: From Professional Norm to Free Speech. It is the most thoughtful legal discussion of academic freedom ever published.