DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: TITLE IX REQUIRES VIOLATING FIRST AMENDMENT – As Glenn noted, the feds are once again pushing an unconstitutional definition of harassment on universities. The latest push, coming in the form of a “findings letter” issued to the University of New Mexico, is all the more concerning because it’s coming directly from the Department of Justice. Universities are forced to choose between adopting a wildly unconstitutional definition of harassment or face the possibility of losing their federal funding and the wrath of the DOJ.

The feds’ expansion of anti-discrimination law at the expense of the First Amendment has been going on in different forms for years, and it’s time that university presidents and elected officials put a stop to it. Please read more about this here, and ask that your representatives and alma maters finally fight back against this executive overreach.

FREE SPEECH IS NO LAUGHING MATTER (EXCEPT IN THIS NEW COMEDY DOCUMENTARY) – Check out my interview with Nick Gillespie, Editor in Chief of Reason.com and Reason TV, about the latest free speech controversies on campus (including the recent speaker disinvitation at Williams College and protests over “Trump 2016” chalkings at Emory University), and the upcoming release of the FIRE-supported documentary Can We Take a Joke?.

If you’re from the Philadelphia area, please sign up ASAP for a free advance screening of the film at the National Constitution Center this Wednesday, April 13 at 8:30 p.m. If you (or any friends) are interested in attending, just RSVP to Haley Hudler at . Here is the Facebook event page for more info.

It’s about a serious topic but, I swear, it’s actually funny. Though, keep in mind, it would be R-Rated under the MPAA, so you might not want to bring your toddlers.

Watch the full Reason TV video below, and read more over at The Torch.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW – PROFESSOR LAURA KIPNIS ON HER ‘TITLE IX INQUISITION’: Check out FIRE’s latest interview with Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis. Last year, Professor Kipnis published an article called “Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe” in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Little did she know, she would become the target of a Title IX investigation herself as a result. As FIRE’s Aaron Reese and Chris Maltby write:

Kipnis’ article described problems with a “post-Title IX landscape” where “sexual panic rules” on America’s campuses and Title IX investigations can be the result of just talking about sex. Following the article’s publication, Kipnis was subjected to a 72-day investigation that proved her point all too well. That’s right: A professor was subjected to a lengthy Title IX investigation for her article about how there are too many Title IX investigations.

You can watch the video below, and learn more about Kipnis’s “Inquisition” over at The Torch.

CELEBRATE “FREEDOM DAY” WITH A FREE SPEECH DOCUMENTARY: I am pleased to announce that the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia will be holding an advance screening of the FIRE-supported documentary Can We Take a Joke? to celebrate “Freedom Day” on April 13, 2016! Can We Take a Joke? is a documentary about what happens when outrage culture and comedy collide, and features interviews with famous comedians, including Adam Carolla, Gilbert Gottfried, Lisa Lampanelli, Heather McDonald, Penn Jillette, and more.

If you are from the Philadelphia area (or plan on being in Philadelphia on April 13) and would like to attend the screening, please email Haley Hudler at .

It’s going to be a fun night.

And if you’re a college student, there’s still time for you to apply for free exclusive screening rights to show the documentary on your campus between April 13 and April 20! The deadline is fast approaching, however, so make sure to apply ASAP.

U. OF SOUTH CAROLINA PROMISES  ‘NO LIMITS’ … EXCEPT WHEN IT COMES TO FREE SPEECH: Check out this video featuring the two student plaintiffs in the new FIRE-sponsored First Amendment lawsuit against the University of South Carolina (USC). The lawsuit is the twelfth in FIRE’s undefeated national Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project.

While USC’s marketing materials claim there are “No Limits” to what students can achieve at USC, the university clearly doesn’t think this catchy slogan extends to constitutional rights on campus. In this video, student plaintiff Ross Abbott and Michael Kriete, president of USC’s chapter of Young Americans for Liberty, describe how they were interrogated and threatened with disciplinary action, ironically, for organizing an outdoor event aimed at educating the student body about freedom of speech on campus. You can read more about the lawsuit over at The Torch.

IN TODAY’S WSJ: How the Sex-Harassment Cops Became Speech Police, by FIRE’s Will Creeley (Paywalled).

FIRE’S 10 WORST UNIVERSITIES FOR FREE SPEECH (2016): This week FIRE revealed our annual list of the 10 worst colleges and universities for free speech in the nation. Tragically, competition was stiff this year. Check out the whole list, but I wanted to reprint one case where readers can still fight back and make a difference. The blowup over Wesleyan University’s student newspaper, The Wesleyan Argus, was the first round in the often anti-free speech student activism that went on to dominate the headlines last fall. Whether you are a tweeter or a donor, let Wesleyan know that you think its so-called “commitment to the free exchange of ideas and pursuit of knowledge” is empty when it suppresses open discussion, especially from its own student press:

Wesleyan University

It’s been a rough year for the student press, and at few institutions has that been more evident than at Wesleyan University. Wesleyan was plunged into controversy last fall after its main student newspaper, The Wesleyan Argus, published a student column critical of the Black Lives Matter movement. Students mobilized in opposition to the column’s publication, circulating a petition calling for Wesleyan’s student government to defund the Argus unless specific demands were met. Among the petitioners’ plans to get its demands met was a movement to support “recycling” the Argus — another way of saying they would round up and destroy copies of the newspaper if their demands went unmet. Indeed, the Argus reported that several hundred copies of the paper were stolen in the midst of the controversy.

Wesleyan’s student government then took up the issue, voting last fall to approve a dangerous resolution that could turn free speech at Wesleyan on its head. Under the new resolution, which may take effect this fall, the Argus could see $17,000 in funding — more than half its budget — revoked and reallocated to other student publications. Worse, the proposal would allocate funding in significant part based on a popular vote of the whole student body, an open invitation to viewpoint discrimination if ever there was one. If Wesleyan doesn’t wise up to the dangerous flaws in the new funding scheme, an already chilled atmosphere for free speech will turn truly frosty.

INSOMNIA THEATER (AUDIO EDITION!): Today’s post features the podcast interview I did with the Cato Institute this week on “The Drive for Campus Speech Codes,” in which I explain how the Department of Education is the “secret engine” behind some of the wackier cases of campus censorship. The interview concludes my recent Cato Unbound debate, where University of Chicago Law School Professor Eric Posner, George Washington University Law School Professor Catherine J. Ross, and I each took turns writing essays on the topic of free speech on campus.

As you can see from our back-and-forth, Ross and I agreed on quite a bit, while Posner and I disagreed on most things. I actually started to get the impression that he wasn’t even reading my essays—just the titles, and basing his responses on that. See for yourselves and check out the entire debate over at Cato Unbound—curious to know what you think.

INSOMNIA THEATER (INTERNATIONAL CENSORSHIP EDITION): This week’s video features my interview of Index on Censorship CEO Jodie Ginsberg, which I conducted while I was visiting London in 2015. In addition to giving an insightful overview of the state of free expression and censorship efforts across the globe, Jodie covers a variety of other topics, including her former work as a journalist and the political power of music and comedy. Watch the full video below, and make sure to also check out the Index on Censorship.

CHECK OUT THE NEW BOOK Academic Freedom in an Age of Conformity: Confronting the Fear of Knowledge about threats to free speech on campus in the UK and beyond. And for a behind the scenes look at it, here is my interview with the author, Joanna Williams:

“CAMPUS FREE SPEECH HAS BEEN IN TROUBLE FOR A LONG TIME”: I’m pleased to announce that the Cato Institute has just released my new essay as the lead essay in its January 2016 issue of Cato Unbound.

Here’s a little info about Cato Unbound, in case you aren’t familiar with it:

Each month, Cato Unbound will present an essay on a big-picture topic by an important thinker. The ideas in that essay will then be tested by the comments and criticism of equally eminent thinkers, each of whom will respond to the month’s lead essay and then to one another. The idea is to create a hub for wide-ranging, open-ended conversation, where ideas will be advanced, challenged, and refined in public view.

My essay gives a brief overview of the history of campus free speech over the last few decades and examines the recent cases of speech suppression on college campuses that have captured the media’s attention. It is live now on Cato Unbound’s website.

Replies from law professors Eric Posner and Catherine J. Ross are to come, and discussion will follow through the end of the month.

THE YEAR CAMPUS FREE SPEECH STOLE THE SPOTLIGHT: As 2015 comes to a close, we at FIRE are taking the time to look back on a year in which free speech issues on campus exploded on the national scene:

Protests roiled more than 75 college campuses, congressional leaders debated students’ civil liberties on multiple occasions, and newsmakers ranging from Jerry Seinfeld to President Obama felt compelled to chime in on the state of free speech at America’s colleges and universities.

You can read more about these events (and many others) in FIRE’s “2015 Year in Review for Student and Faculty Rights on Campus” over at The Torch.

INSOMNIA THEATER (CHRISTMAS EDITION): In case you didn’t see it yet in The Wall Street Journal or in George Will’s recent column in The Washington Post, FIRE recently released its 2016 Spotlight on Speech Codes report, just in time for the holidays. The biggest news is that for the first time in FIRE’s history, the number of schools maintaining red light speech codes has fallen below 50%, to 49.3%. That’s down from 75% eight years ago. Moreover, not only have the red light numbers gone down, the number of green light schools have gone up, from eight institutions (2%) in 2007 to 22 institutions (5%) this year.

To give you a better visual of our progress, FIRE’s talented media team along with our speech codes expert, Samantha Harris, put together this terrific, short video.

https://youtu.be/fCJujctqJeY

But despite this progress, 49% of schools is 49% too many, and between the federal government and student demands for speech codes, 2016 is likely to be a big year in the fight for free speech on campus.

INSOMNIA THEATER (WE CAN’T LIVE ON LOVE EDITION): This week’s video highlights all the great work FIRE has been doing this year, and why you should take Glenn’s advice (thanks, Glenn!) and donate to FIRE.

As we say in the video, it’s been quite a year for FIRE. We’ve seen the percentage of schools with ‘red light’ speech policies fall below the 50 percent mark for the first time, continued our 100% litigation success rate, and scored a high profile cover story for The Atlantic, to name just a few highlights.

But we’ve also faced a lot of struggles too. Between increasing student illiberalism and overreach from the Department of Education, the fight for free speech on campus is far from over.

The fight is bigger than I’ve ever seen, so FIRE needs your help now more than ever.

DON’T WORRY, CORNELL IS HERE TO TEACH YOU HOW TO BE “INCLUSIVE” WITH YOUR “HOLIDAY DECORATIONS”: Just in time for the holidays, Cornell University’s Department of Environmental Health & Safety recently issued “guidelines” about holiday decorations.

Among its list of decorations “that are NOT Consistent with Either University Assembly Guidelines or the University’s Commitment to Diversity and Inclusiveness”: a bizarre variety of Christian and Jewish symbols, including “crosses” and the “Star of David,” as well as secular “holiday” items, including mistletoe and “stars at the top of trees.”

So Cornell, would you mind explaining how a Star of David is either offensive to your university’s values, or a “holiday decoration” for that matter?

Read more about it over at The Torch.

PRIVATE COLLEGES: ‘WHERE FREE SPEECH IS LEAST FREE IN AMERICA’: I encourage everyone to check out this new article by George Leef about the growing threats to free speech on private college campuses. In addition to deftly summarizing what is expected of private campuses in regard to protecting free speech, Leef describes one of the most recent examples of blatant administrative censorship: Colorado College student Thaddeus Pryor’s suspension for making a six word joke on Yik Yak.

You can read Leef’s article over at Forbes.com, and read more about Colorado College’s war on Yik Yak comments over at FIRE’s news blog.

INSOMNIA THEATER (STUDENT PRESS EDITION): Recent high-profile threats to student press—including banishment of student reporters from public events and reductions in funding for student newspapers for publishing content like this op-ed—illustrate that it is more important than ever for student journalists to know their rights. That’s why this week’s Insomnia Theater features FIRE’s new video designed to do just that.

In the video, FIRE’s Azhar Majeed gives basic explanations about the rights student journalists hold on campus, such as the differences between student press freedoms at public and private universities. The video also features several recent cases in which FIRE defended the rights of student journalists around the country.

Check out the video below and make sure to share it with anyone you think may be interested, whether it’s student journalists, journalism professors, or even your old alma mater’s student newspaper! You can learn more about student press rights on FIRE’s website.

A LOSS FOR YALE: “Yale lecturer whose email ignited a debate about racism has decided not to teach there in the future.” via Business Insider.

Erika Christakis, the faculty member at the center of a racially charged debate at Yale, has decided not to teach at the Ivy League school going forward. “I will not be teaching at Yale in the future,” she told Business Insider in an email Thursday.

Christakis’ decision came after weeks of backlash against the lecturer and administrator over an email she sent to students suggesting that Yale shouldn’t tell them not to wear offensive Halloween costumes.

That backlash included an open letter criticising her signed by hundreds of members of the Yale community.

Recently, 49 faculty members wrote their own open letter defending Christakis against allegations of racism.

FIRE has been following this case since the very beginning. As I wrote in The Washington Post: “If either professor steps down now or in the coming months, it must be understood to represent Yale’s glaring failure to live up to its own glowing promises to protect and honor freedom of speech on campus.”

More on this on Monday.

‘HUNTING GROUND’ FILMMAKERS CLAIM HARVARD LAW PROFS’ CRITICISM CREATES A ‘HOSTILE CLIMATE’: Last month, a group of Harvard Law School professors issued a press release denouncing the film The Hunting Ground as being misleading. Now the filmmakers are claiming that the professors’ criticism may constitute actionable sex discrimination in violation of Title IX. Check out what FIRE’s Samantha Harris has to say about this claim in her new article.

FREE SPEECH IS NO ‘DIVERSION’: If you’re looking for a weekend #longread, check out this piece by FIRE Executive Director Robert Shibley taking on attempts to dismiss the free speech issues arising out of the current campus protests.

DEPT OF ED SHOULD ACKNOWLEDGE THE PROBLEM WITH AFFIRMATIVE CONSENT POLICIES:  Last week FIRE wrote to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and requested that OCR ask colleges and universities not to use “affirmative consent” standards that violate the due process rights of students accused of sexual assault.

Affirmative consent policies are generally overbroad, vague, and unfairly shift the burden of proof to the accused. And how would an innocent student demonstrate he or she received affirmative consent? As Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, co-author of California’s campus affirmative consent law, said: “Your guess is as good as mine.”

You can read FIRE’s letter over on our website and learn more about the letter over at The Torch.

Also be sure to watch students struggle to define what affirmative consent even means in this video:

NOT ALL COLLEGES ARE TRYING TO LIMIT FREE EXPRESSION: Chapman University has recently taken several impressive steps to prove its commitment to free speech on campus. First, it developed and ratified a statement on free speech modeled after the University of Chicago’s free expression policy statement. Then, last weekend, Chancellor Daniele C. Struppa wrote a fantastic piece in The Orange County Register on the meaning of free expression and the recent efforts on college campuses to censor offensive speech. You can read more about the Chapman statement and Struppa’s article over at The Torch.

INSOMNIA THEATER (FIREFLY EDITION): I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving! As a celebration of the holidays, today’s post features a fun blast from the past: legendary author Neil Gaiman takes a look at an absurd case at the University of Wisconsin – Stout that combined two of my passions—freedom of speech and the beloved, yet short-lived sci-fi series Firefly.

Back in 2011, UW-Stout tried to censor the posters Professor James Miller had put on his office door, including one featuring a quote from Firefly. Stout stood by its actions until FIRE’s advocacy campaign on Miller’s behalf inspired Gaiman, along with Firefly actors Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin, to take to Twitter to encourage their millions of followers to contact the university with their support of free speech.

You can check out the video below, as well as my write-up of the whole Stout-Firefly debacle over at The Huffington Post.

DARTMOUTH REFUSES TO STOP RESTRICTING SPEECH, LOSES ‘GREEN LIGHT’ SPEECH CODE RATING: I am sad to report that after failing to heed FIRE’s warnings that its “Bias Incident Reporting” protocol impermissibly threatens free speech on campus, Dartmouth College has lost the “green light” speech code policy rating it has held since 2005. For those of you who are unfamiliar with FIRE’s policy rating system (a “green light” is our highest rating), check out our website.

As FIRE’s Samantha Harris said today in The Torch:

Examples of bias incidents, according to Dartmouth’s Office of Pluralism and Leadership, include “telling jokes” and “stereotyping.” This policy is inconsistent with Dartmouth’s claim to be an institution that “prizes and defends the right of free speech.” If every joke or provocative remark about politics, religion, or culture is potentially subject to a formal investigation, Dartmouth students are not truly free to speak their minds.

You can read more about why Dartmouth has been downgraded over at FIRE’s website, and if you want to share your thoughts on this with Dartmouth directly, you can reach out to the school on Twitter, Facebook, or via email.

INSOMNIA THEATER (ACADEMIC FREEDOM EDITION) – This week’s post features a video of University of Chicago law professor and interim dean Geoffrey Stone discussing his role in the crafting of the University of Chicago’s terrific statement on freedom of expression.

The events at the University of Missouri, Yale, Amherst, and so many other institutions over the past few weeks show just how important it is for schools to adopt a statement affirming their support for robust speech protections for faculty and students. The Chicago statement guarantees “all members of the University community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn,” and makes clear that “it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”

FIRE endorsed the statement back in January and has written hundreds of faculty members, students, and student journalists at institutions nationwide encouraging them to do the same. Since then, the editorial boards of USA TODAY and the New York Daily News have both endorsed the statement. And now colleges and universities are beginning to follow suit— Princeton University, Purdue University, Johns Hopkins University, American University, and Winston-Salem State University have all either endorsed the Chicago statement or embraced similar sets of principles.

You can learn more about the Chicago statement from Geoffrey Stone in the video below, and you can sign on to the statement yourself over at FIRE’s website.