THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME REACH MY FUNDRAISING GOAL! Thanks to your generous support, as well as shoutouts from Glenn and Popehat.com, my $3,000 matching fundraiser on Facebook for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education met its goal almost a week early. Perhaps, more than ever, free speech on campus needs all the help it can get, so your support is greatly appreciated!

FIRE, PENN JILLETTE, AND OTHERS DEMAND BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY NOT CENSOR PLAY ABOUT CENSORSHIP: At a university named for one of the greatest free speech champions in American history, faculty and administrators decided to cancel a play about the perils of easily offended students…due to outrage from offended students. Penn Jillette, Kitty Bruce (daughter of Lenny), Ron Collins, and Bob Corn-Revere joined FIRE today to ask Brandeis to live up to its promises of free speech, and its supposed veneration of the late, great comedian Lenny Bruce whose iconoclastic comedy inspired the play.

BRANDEIS STUDENTS OFFENDED BY PLAY ABOUT OFFENDED STUDENTS: Administrators canceled the play after student backlash over the Lenny Bruce-inspired production. In the 2015 documentary “Can We Take a Joke?” (I am an executive producer), I claimed “Lenny Bruce wouldn’t last five minutes on the modern college campus.” Because the influential comedian died in 1966, we can’t know the answer for sure, but this is about as close to confirmation of that prediction as we are likely to get. A lack of sense of humor on campus is apparently no laughing matter.

FENCING IN FREE SPEECH AT LOS ANGELES PIERCE COLLEGE: 100,000 students within the Los Angeles Community College District are corralled into tiny free speech zones to exercise their rights. Student Kevin Shaw is fighting back with the help of FIRE (VIDEO).

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE LENDS HAND IN FREE SPEECH LAWSUIT: A California college student is suing his school for stifling his First Amendment rights. Now, the DOJ is issuing a “statement of interest” in the FIRE-sponsored litigation.

“THOSE CALLING FOR A WORLD WITHOUT HATE SPEECH NEED NOT LOOK FAR AWAY OR FAR BACK TO ENVISION THE SOCIETY THEY SEEK TO CREATE. WE ENCOURAGE THEM TO SIMPLY OPEN THEIR EYES.” Great column by Zach Greenberg at FIRE.

VIEWPOINT DIVERSITY ON CAMPUS? Professors Jonathan Haidt, Mark Lilla, Nadine Strossen, Sam Abrams, and April Kelly-Woessner tackle the question. (VIDEO)

NEW FIRE SURVEY: Majority of college students self-censor, support disinvitations, don’t know hate speech is protected by First Amendment.

“IS THIS THE DAY THE INTERNET DIES?” When one company can unilaterally censor billions at the push of a button, what does it mean for the future of the internet? FIRE’s “So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast” investigates.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Education Department rescinds the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter that gutted due process on campus.

It’s a great day for due process on campus – but there is more work to be done. Rescinding this letter is a necessary, but not sufficient, step towards ending these abuses of Title IX on our nation’s campuses.

CAMPUS WHISTLEBLOWERS: What happens when college professors uncover wrongdoing in the halls of their own institutions? FIRE has a video investigation.

A BOLD WAY TO FIGHT RACISM: Daryl Davis, a black man, explains how he defeats the Ku Klux Klan with open dialogue, not violence. 

NEW FIRE REPORT: The vast majority of America’s top colleges deny students fair procedures when accused of serious campus misconduct.

OUCH! Brazilian wax test question nets Howard University professor a 504-day Title IX investigation, sanctions.

SOME TOPICS ARE NOT UP FOR DEBATE AT TUFTS UNIVERSITY AND FREE SPEECH IS ONE OF THEM: FIRE investigates.

THERE IS A REASON NOBODY SAYS, “IF YOU WANT TO STOP A BULLY, GIVE HIM EVERYTHING HE WANTS” – We at FIRE have been getting asked a lot about what the recent events at UC Berkeley say about the state of free speech on campus. Check out my thoughts over on FIRE’s website.

FLAGLER COLLEGE FINALLY APPROVED A STUDENT’S FREE SPEECH EVENT… DAYS AFTER THE EVENT TOOK PLACE — And only after initially prohibiting the student from hosting the event at all.

“THE MONEY AND TIME PUBLIC CAMPUSES WASTE DEFENDING THESE MANIFESTLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL CODES IN COURT IS A NATIONAL SCANDAL. CAMPUSES SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BE FORCED TO RESPECT STUDENTS’ FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS.” – This morning I testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice on the topic of First Amendment Protections on Public College and University Campuses. As of this posting, the hearing is still in progress— you can watch it here, or read my oral testimony over at The Huffington Post.

IS DEPAUL AMERICA’S WORST SCHOOL FOR FREE SPEECH? A new multimedia story from FIRE takes a look at the university’s troubled history of censorship.

“LET’S FACE IT: Right now, when it comes to violent censorship, crime pays,” writes the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s Robert Shibley in The Washington Post.

THE 10 WORST COLLEGES FOR FREE SPEECH, brought to you by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). It wasn’t easy to narrow down the list. Which school do you think is the worst? Vote!

YOU CAN’T CENSOR THAT: Appeals Court unanimously upholds ruling that bars Iowa State from politically motivated censorship of T-shirts advocating marijuana legalization. The ruling is the tenth consecutive victory for FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project.

IN 2005, HE PUBLISHED THE “MUHAMMAD CARTOONS.” Now, he’s on al-Qaeda’s hit list and must have security when he appears in public. A new episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast explores the “assassin’s veto” with journalist Flemming Rose.

NEW REPORT FROM FIRE: RESTRICTIVE CAMPUS SPEECH POLICIES SEE RECORD DECLINE – Today the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) released its annual “Spotlight on Speech Codes,” a report on the speech policies at 449 of America’s largest and most prestigious colleges and universities. This year’s report indicates a record decline in the percentage of universities maintaining policies that severely restrict students’ free speech rights.

Unfortunately, however, it isn’t all good news. For example, about 40 percent of the schools FIRE surveyed had a “bias reporting team” tasked with investigating incidents of verbal bias. As the Wall Street Journal reported:

Even as some colleges drop speech codes to avoid legal challenges, many have established “bias” reporting systems that solicit complaints about offensive speech. As Fire explains, these systems encourage “students to report on one another—and on faculty members—whenever they subjectively perceive that someone’s speech or expression is biased.”

Check out more about the report over on FIRE’s website, or read the Wall Street Journal’s write-up about the findings!

“Good Beer, No Censorship”: New episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast explores the brew ha-ha behind Flying Dog Brewery’s First Amendment dog fight with the state of Michigan over the censorship of its “Raging Bitch” beer label.