HATE SPEECH LAWS DIDN’T STOP THE NAZIS. Weimar Germany tried censoring them before they took power. The laws failed, and the lesson is a grim one: censorship is no substitute for defeating bad ideas.

CONSTITUTIONAL NERDS DESERVE THEIR OWN CONTENT TOO. The Blessings of Liberty is Jeffrey Rosen’s deep dive into the Constitution, the Founding, and the arguments that still shape American self-government.

ORIGINALISM IS WHERE HISTORY BECOMES ARGUMENT. In the Court’s latest term, Jeffrey Rosen, Nina Totenberg, and Joanne Lipman show how fights over the Fourteenth Amendment can turn on which text, era, and historical evidence the justices think should control.

MONTY PYTHON’S JOHN CLEESE HAS SPENT A CAREER PUNCTURING POMPOSITY. So naturally, I had to ask him about free speech, cancel culture, Life of Brian, and why comedy needs room to offend.

A PROFESSOR INVESTIGATED FOR SAYING “WORD SALAD” Hofstra investigated a professor over a phrase that belongs in roughly every faculty meeting in America. When ordinary criticism can trigger a harassment process, the policy has become the problem. More in this week’s Free Speech Update.

GERMANY’S HIGH COURT GETS FREE SPEECH RIGHT! The high court ruled that comparing Israel to Nazi Germany can still be protected speech, even when the comparison is deeply offensive. Free speech protections matter most in the cases that make people want to abandon them.

A REPUBLIC CANNOT SURVIVE WHEN POLITICAL OPPONENTS BECOME TRAITORS AND EVERY DEFEAT BECOMES A PLOT: Stephen Knott examines how conspiracy mongering corrodes free speech, constitutional restraint, and the shared reality self-government requires.

WHEN ACADEMIA TREATS CONSERVATIVES AS A PROBLEM TO BE MANAGED RATHER THAN PEOPLE WHO MIGHT HAVE A POINT: Serious institutions need people willing to challenge fashionable assumptions and steel-man unpopular arguments. Universities will not regain trust while treating conservatives and other dissenters as defects rather than intellectual participants.

THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT MEAN WHATEVER FIVE JUSTICES CAN FIND WITH CTRL-F: Jed Shugerman and Ilan Wurman debate executive power, birthright citizenship, and whether originalism constrains judges or merely gives them a historical scavenger hunt for the result they already prefer.

ACADEMIC REFORM HELD BACK BY ACADEMICS: Viewpoint diversity does not require importing extremists into the room. It requires someone willing to question the evidence, test the consensus, and fairly state the argument everyone else would rather dismiss.

THE CONSTITUTION BEGINS WITH “WE THE PEOPLE” FOR A REASON: Jesse Wegman explains how forgotten founder James Wilson championed popular sovereignty, direct representation, and a national government deriving every legitimate power from the consent of the governed.

THE AAUP’S MESSAGE TO CONSERVATIVES IS CLEAR: They will oppose your candidates, insult their critics, and still insist they are neutral guardians of academic freedom. That is not principled independence, it is partisanship with institutional branding.

THE AAUP’S PARTISAN TURN: The organization made its first-ever national political endorsement for Abdul El-Sayed, then its president reportedly called critics “clowns” in a now-deleted post. An academic-freedom organization cannot act like a political campaign and still expect everyone to trust its neutrality.

HOFSTRA INVESTIGATES PROFESSOR FOR CRITICIZING A COURSE, THEN INVESTIGATES HIM AGAIN FOR CALLING FIRE: Academic freedom apparently means keeping quiet when administrators come after you. Tell Hofstra to end the investigations and drop the charges.

“FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE” JUST PRODUCES A BIGGER FIRE: David French warns that right-wing censorship is repeating the left’s worst mistakes, from cancel campaigns to government speech codes, while weakening the liberties conservatives once defended.

THE SUPREME COURT IS SUPPOSED TO CHECK POWER, NOT JOIN THE TEAM: Sarah Isgur and Melissa Murray debate executive overreach, birthright citizenship, originalism, gun rights, and whether the justices defended the constitutional order or expanded their own authority.

THE SUPREME COURT IS SUPPOSED TO CHECK POWER, NOT JOIN THE TEAM: Sarah Isgur and Melissa Murray debate executive overreach, birthright citizenship, originalism, gun rights, and whether the justices defended the constitutional order or expanded their own authority.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IS NOT A MUSEUM PIECE. IT IS AMERICA’S OPERATING CREED: Ken Burns joins Jeffrey Rosen to examine “We the people,” natural rights, religious liberty, self-government, and the duties that come with inheriting a free republic.

COLLEGES HAVE SPENT DECADES WRITING RULES THAT MAKE FREE SPEECH OPTIONAL: The good news is that the worst campus speech codes are finally retreating. FIRE’s “green light” schools have climbed from 8 in 2006 to 76 today, while “red light” schools have hit a record low. But nearly 70% still earn a “yellow light.” Progress, yes. Mission accomplished, no.

AMERICA’S FIRST PRESIDENT UNDERSTOOD THAT POWER MEANS KNOWING WHEN TO GIVE IT UP: H.W. Brands discusses George Washington’s character, his defense of national unity, and why the republic depended on a leader who put duty above ambition.

THE CENSORS CALLED IT “ORDER.” JOHN QUINCY ADAMS CALLED IT A GAG: Bob Crawford explains how a former president returned to Congress, defended Americans’ right to petition, outmaneuvered the slave power, and proved that public service matters more than political rank.

THE REPUBLIC DOES NOT RUN ON OUTRAGE. IT RUNS ON CITIZENS WHO LISTEN: Justice Stephen Breyer discusses civic education, compromise, deep reading, and why constitutional government depends on people willing to participate, deliberate, and accept less than 100 percent.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION WAS NOT INEVITABLE, AND NEITHER IS THE REPUBLIC IT CREATED: Justice Neil Gorsuch discusses the courage behind the Declaration, the character required for self-government, and why every generation must learn the country’s history before it can carry its ideals forward.

WHEN WORDS BECOME VIOLENCE, CENSORSHIP STARTS LOOKING LIKE SELF-DEFENSE. A FIRE survey found 65% of Americans accept that idea at least slightly. That is how a free-speech culture starts talking itself into silence. I explain why