TWISTING TITLE IX: How did a 44-year-old law prohibiting sex discrimination in education become one of this decade’s greatest threats to student and faculty rights on campus? FIRE’s Robert Shibley explains in latest episode of So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast.

UPDATE [From Glenn]: Here’s Shibley’s book.

“THINK TRIGGER WARNINGS ARE NEVER MANDATORY ON CAMPUS? THINK AGAIN.” – Some critics have argued that the University of Chicago’s letter to incoming students explaining that the university does not support “so-called trigger warnings” was unnecessary because no universities actually mandate trigger warnings. FIRE’s Samantha Harris has found otherwise.

JOIN FIRE IN SAYING “THANK YOU” TO UCHICAGO FOR TAKING A STAND FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM – As Glenn posted about last week, the University of Chicago (UChicago) recently made waves when it sent a back-to-school letter to incoming students telling them not to expect “intellectual ‘safe spaces’” when they arrive on campus.

We at FIRE agree with UChicago that higher education should first and foremost be a marketplace of ideas. If you agree, you can join FIRE in saying “Thank You” to UChicago for taking this important stand.

THE STORY BEHIND THE NEW DOCUMENTARY ‘CAN WE TAKE A JOKE?’ –  I know I’ve posted a lot on here about the new, FIRE-supported documentary Can We Take a Joke?, but I wanted to share this new piece I wrote about the movie for two reasons. First, it describes the backstory of the film and how it came about, which was a very interesting process, and second, it provides useful links to a variety of online platforms where you can watch the film (per Instapundit commenters’ requests).

NOW YOU CAN WATCH ‘CAN WE TAKE A JOKE?’ FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME: This FIRE-supported documentary on the collision between comedy and outrage culture is now available on iTunes, where it has gotten as high as the #3 most downloaded documentary! And if you like the film, go say so on Rotten Tomatoes.

“POLITICAL CORRECTNESS KIND OF CUTS US OFF AT THE KNEES AND DOESN’T ALLOW US TO BE OUR AUTHENTIC SELVES,” says Rain Pryor, daughter of Richard Pryor, in a brand new FIRE exclusive interview with the daughters of comedy godfathers Pryor, George Carlin and Lenny Bruce. Check out the podcast here or the video below.

And don’t forget that if you are in New York City or Los Angeles between this Friday, July 29 and August 4, you can see the new movie about comedy and free speech, Can We Take a Joke?, on the big screen. You can also see it with a beer at Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse just outside of Washington, D.C. This is before it will be released all over the country on August 2 via iTunes, Google Play, Amazon and virtually every cable company in the U.S. and Canada.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) released a video today covering Harvard University’s announcement that it will start punishing students who join single-gender clubs. Economics professor and Harvard president emeritus Larry Summers; cognitive scientist and psychology professor Steven Pinker; and civil rights attorney, author, and FIRE co-founder Harvey Silverglate are among those who talked with FIRE for our latest video.

WHAT IF OUR CONSTITUTION WERE WRITTEN LIKE CAMPUS SPEECH CODES? – Check out FIRE’s new animated video about what would happen if our Founding Fathers had acted like college administrators!

You can watch the video below, and read more over at The Torch.

IT’S FINALLY HERE: Now you watch the ‘Can We Take a Joke?’ trailer! The documentary, which is about comedy vs. the “right not to be offended,” will hit theaters in NYC and L.A. July 29, and will be available to download from iTunes August 2nd.

“‘PATERNALISTIC BABYSITTERS’ BEGONE! DARTMOUTH STUDENTS CALL FOR INTELLECTUAL INDEPENDENCE” – A petition from five student government leaders at Dartmouth College calls for students to have “true freedom to speak their minds.”

VICTORY FOR CAMPUS FREE SPEECH IN TEXAS: I’m pleased to share with you all that earlier this month, Blinn College agreed to settle a First Amendment lawsuit filed last year by a student who was told that she would need to jump through numerous bureaucratic hoops to express herself on campus, including “special permission” to display a gun rights sign.

Read more about this exciting victory for freedom of expression over at The Torch.

FIRE CO-FOUNDER SILVERGLATE WINS MANHATTAN INSTITUTE’S ALEXANDER HAMILTON AWARD: Forgive me while I catch up with myself (protecting free speech on campus is keeping us busier than ever, lately), but I’m pleased to announce that last Monday, FIRE co-founder Harvey Silverglate received the Manhattan Institute’s 2016 Alexander Hamilton Award for his decades of civil liberties advocacy as an attorney, author, and activist. According to the Manhattan Institute, the award “was created to honor those individuals helping to foster the revitalization of our nation’s cities.”

As I said over at The Torch:

“I cannot imagine anyone more deserving of an award for service on behalf of free speech and due process, both on and off campus, than FIRE co-founder Harvey Silverglate. On a more personal note, in addition to being the person who recruited me for FIRE, he has been a mentor to me and remains one of my lifelong heroes.

Harvey’s influence permeates every aspect of FIRE’s work, from our attention to detail, to our commitment to rights that transcend political labels or concerns, to our insistence that in order for basic liberties to survive, legal remedies are essential but not sufficient. We all agree with Harvey that we must transform the culture into one that values genuine diversity of opinion and the most robust protections of freedom of speech, fair process and procedures, and freedom of conscience.”

Congratulations to Harvey for this much-deserved honor! And if you want to learn more about him from his own mouth, check out our video profile of Harvey.

FIRE LAUNCHES NEW FREE SPEECH PODCAST: I’m proud to announce that FIRE has launched So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast. New episodes will be posted every other Thursday morning. The first of our bi-weekly episodes features interviews with me and Brookings Institution Senior Fellow and Kindly Inquisitors author (as well as a personal hero of mine) Jonathan Rauch. You can listen here, and read more about the podcast over at The Torch.

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.