‘TheFIRE.org’ Archives
Following Publication of Photos, Newspaper Adviser Fired
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org The East Carolinian and the Student Press Law Center both reported yesterday that Paul Isom, Director of Student Media at Eastern Carolina University (ECU), was fired on Wednesday. Isom's advising portfolio included the campus radio station, television station, yearbook, and several student magazines. But it was a [...]
FIRE Urges Department of Education to Protect Speech
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org In an open letter sent today, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and ten other organizations urge the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to defend free speech on campus by ending the lingering confusion surrounding the definition of student harassment. "Since the 1980s, [...]
FIRE Intervenes at Harvard after Economics Professor Fired
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org Today, FIRE has asked Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to reverse its action against a controversial economics professor after it canceled all of his courses due to an op-ed he published in India in the wake of last year's Mumbai terrorist bombings. Although Harvard's administration had defended [...]
A Roundup of 2011′s Faculty First Amendment Rights Case Law
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org Last year saw a handful of important cases related to university faculty First Amendment rights in the courts. Particularly, a number of cases dealt with the application of the United States Supreme Court case Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (2006). Yesterday marked the first day of the annual meeting of the [...]
Hans Bader Deconstructs Widener’s ‘Retaliation’ Argument
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org Over at Minding the Campus, Hans Bader exposes the flimsy legal underpinnings of Widener University's finding this past July that Professor Lawrence Connell was guilty of "retaliation" for defending himself against baseless charges of racial discrimination. We've covered Connell's ordeal extensively here on The [...]
Unconstitutional Speech Code Dumped by California’s Chico State
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org January 4, 2012–After California State University–Chico's definition of sexual harassment was named one of two "Speech Codes of the Year" for 2011 by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), the university discarded language stating that faculty members could commit sexual harassment by [...]
April ‘Dear Colleague Letter’ Was 2011′s Biggest FIRE Fight
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org Looking back at the year just ending, it's extraordinarily easy to identify FIRE's biggest fight of 2011: the dramatic new regulations announced by the federal Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in its April 4 "Dear Colleague Letter." In my five years here at FIRE, I can't remember it ever [...]
Administrators May Be Liable for Political Discrimination
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org On Wednesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit issued a decision in Wagner v. Jones, No. 10-2588, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 25879 (8th Cir. Dec. 28, 2011). The opinion is an interesting read, even for non-lawyers. The suit at issue was brought by Teresa Wagner, currently the Associate Director [...]
Marquette University Threatens Academic Freedom
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org Over at the blog Marquette Warrior, John McAdams provides a good example of how unwarranted investigations of campus speech can cause a deeply problematic "chilling effect" at a university. Universities must not pursue investigations of protected expression just because someone submits a complaint; as soon as it is [...]
A Roundup of 2011’s Free Speech Case Law
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org While FIRE has won numerous victories this year in working to protect individual rights on college campuses, 2011 was a mixed year for the defense of students' rights by the courts. Importantly, this year highlighted divergent theories of the First Amendment rights of students off campus. While some courts have held [...]
Speech Codes of the Year: 2011
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org, Samantha Harris Each month, FIRE singles out a particularly reprehensible campus speech code for our Speech Code of the Month designation. While all of 2011's Speech Codes of the Month flagrantly violated students' and faculty members' right to free expression, two of them were so egregious that they deserve special [...]
OCR’s April 4 Letter and Opposition in the National Media
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org As most FIRE supporters probably know, the single event that dominated our advocacy in 2011 was the April 4 "Dear Colleague" letter that the federal Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sent to virtually every college in the country. The letter, presented as an attempt to address the real problem [...]
Auburn University Bans Ron Paul Banner from Dorm Room Window
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org AUBURN, Ala., December 22, 2011—Auburn University has ordered a Ron Paul for President campaign banner removed from the inside of a dorm room window while allowing students to display numerous other banners, stickers, and flags. Student Eric Philips, who was ordered to remove his sign last month, used his cell [...]
Victorious Defense Campaigns Nationwide for FIRE
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org, Peter Bonilla To try to summarize FIRE's major successes in 2011 would-more than in any other year of FIRE's existence-tell only part of the story. In 2011, FIRE recorded 31 public victories on 29 campuses, with total enrollments of more than 500,000 students. Of these victories, 10 consisted of successful policy [...]
Drake Law Student Decries University’s Free Speech Zone
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org John Crotty, a law student at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, wrote a letter to the editor in last week's Des Moines Register. The letter speaks for itself: I'm a law student at Drake University. I made a sign for the Dec. 10 GOP debate. It was tasteful and not hateful or vulgar in any way. I arrived at [...]
A 2011 Message from FIRE’s Chairman
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org Today, FIRE Board Chairman and Co-founder Harvey Silverglate sent this message to FIRE's donors and friends. This year, as last, I've decided to send you a personal end-of-year message to supplement what you receive from various FIRE staff members, people from whom you hear more frequently than from me. The [...]
Blog Postings and Tweets Can Be Protected Political Speech
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org In a victory for free speech, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland has ruled that the portion of a federal anti-stalking statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2261A(2)(A), pertaining to causing emotional distress via an interactive computer service is unconstitutional as applied. The opinion in the case, [...]
More on Sam Houston State Dropping Creepy Social Media Policy
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org Last week, eCampusNews drew attention to the news of Sam Houston State University's (SHSU's) decision to ditch its proposed social media policy. The policy, which would have required any student group bearing the SHSU name to join the university's "social media universe," was the subject of controversy and student [...]
Help FIRE Expose Injustice on Campus
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org, Alison Meyer Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously wrote that "sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants." This is FIRE's unofficial motto, as we have found that time and time again, administrators cannot defend in public the actions they are all too eager to pursue in private. Since our founding, [...]
USF Polytechnic Clears Student of Disciplinary Charges
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org, Peter Bonilla A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the troubles faced by University of South Florida Polytechnic student Michael Nacrelli. To bring you up to speed: Nacrelli, a Student Government senator, faced charges of "disruptive conduct" and "failure to follow instructions" last month following a series of [...]
FIRE Announces Winners of 2011 ‘Freedom in Academia’ Contest
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org Today, FIRE is pleased to announce the winners of the 2011 "Freedom in Academia" Essay Contest. Vincent Kelley, a homeschooled student from Eugene, Oregon, won first prize with his essay, "Civil Liberties in Academia." Rachel Anderson from A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida, won second [...]
UC Riverside: Told You So
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org, Adam Kissel Just two weeks ago, writing about free speech in the University of California system, I noted: UC Riverside's policy with the misleading name "Freedom of Speech in Promoting Events and Organizations" states that "ublicity should not contain ... violent images or language against individuals or groups" [...]
Celebrate the Anniversary of the 1st Amendment by Tweeting
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights officially became part of the U.S. Constitution when Virginia ratified those first ten amendments, becoming the eleventh state to do so. Ken Paulson of the First Amendment Center has some reflections on the importance of this
U. of Denver’s Shame in ‘Inside Higher Ed’
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org, Peter Bonilla Following FIRE's Monday press release, Inside Higher Ed has published an article on the poor climate for academic freedom in light of the University of Denver's (DU's) action against a professor. Following two anonymous complaints over his teaching of a graduate-level course on "The Domestic and [...]
Defend Liberty on Campus: Support a FIRE Intern or Co-Op!
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org, Christe Thompson This winter marks my second holiday season working at FIRE. As a student attending Drexel University and working through the co-op program, I have found my experience at FIRE to be most rewarding. Ever since I started at FIRE in September of 2010, I have been witness to the inspiration and hope [...]
SPLC’s Goldstein to Judges: Stop Deferring to School Admin’s
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org, William Creeley In his latest column for The Huffington Post, Student Press Law Center Attorney Advocate Adam Goldstein makes a powerful argument against the longstanding judicial practice of granting school administrators substantial deference when reviewing their decisions in court. Goldstein cites two [...]
This Month in History: FIRE Beats Performance Art Censorship
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org Six years ago this month, FIRE secured a victory by helping to restore freedom of artistic expression at Washington State University (WSU). As a result of pressure from FIRE and a public awareness campaign, WSU was forced to back down from its endorsement of a "heckler's veto" and student playwright Chris Lee was [...]
Prosecutor Coughs $425k for Violating First Amendment Rights
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org The Student Press Law Center (SPLC) reported yesterday that former University of Northern Colorado (UNC) student Thomas Mink has reached a settlement with former prosecutor Susan Knox in Mink's lawsuit arising from an illegal search of his home. Settling the lawsuit, which has dragged on for many years since the 2003 [...]
University of Denver Calls Teaching ‘Sexual Harassment’
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org University of Denver Professor Arthur N. Gilbert is daring to teach his "Drug War" course again after the university violated his academic freedom and suspended him earlier this year, deeming his teaching about sexual issues to be "sexual harassment." Over the objections of the Foundation for Individual Rights in [...]
Harvard Fires Economics Professor over Political Article
Liberty Alerts, TheFIRE.org Although Harvard's administration had defended Professor Subramanian Swamy's rights after intervention by FIRE, FAS blatantly and shamefully violated them in its meeting on Tuesday. Anyone reading the op-ed will have no trouble detecting why it was controversial, but this action by the Harvard faculty places [...]
