STUDENT FACES FINE, SUSPENSION FOR ZOOM BACKGROUND OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: He may also have to take a “social justice workshop” if Stockton U. finds him guilty. Man, I miss the days when college admins and other “elites” actually made an effort to disguise their contempt for others.

U. OF NORTH TEXAS’ WEIRDO SCHENKERIAN MUSIC THEORY INQUISITION: Yeah, you read that right. Now an official FIRE case! Did you think “cancel culture” was out of control? Well, prepare to have your preconceived notions totally confirmed.

PROFESSOR MIKE ADAMS WAS MY FRIEND: He was also a fighter for free speech and due process on campus, who was persecuted in his lifetime and, after being driven to take his own life, was mocked and cursed after his death. He deserved better — we all do. But that won’t happen until we treat people as people instead of as instruments for our own agendas. This will take a general awakening, and I can only pray it happens soon.

PUTTING THE TOTAL IN TOTALITARIANISM: Nothing escapes the Sauronic eye of the cancellation squad, which is now after U. of North Texas professor Timothy Jackson for writing an article in the music theory Journal of Schenkerian Studies that was skeptical of a fellow prof’s allegation that there is a “‘white racial frame’ in music theory that is structural and institutionalized.” And like clockwork, Dean John W. Richmond of UNT’s College of Music has announced an investigation into Jackson.

IS ANYONE THESE DAYS NOT A LIMITED-PURPOSE PUBLIC FIGURE? I may lose my First Amendment lawyer card for this, but Glenn’s earlier post about the Joy Reid lawsuit brings up a huge problem with libel law in the Internet age: the famous person you sue for libeling you on Twitter is effectively the one who makes you a public figure, and therefore gets to make winning a suit against them almost impossible (at least, if you can’t afford a hugely expensive trip to federal appeals court, and maybe not then). If people think a free press means the press gets to destroy random Americans with impunity, why wouldn’t they stop supporting it?

Update: I managed to confuse people here. The district court found that she was a limited purpose public figure; this article was about the Second Circuit reversing that finding, hence my comment about the expensive trip to appeals court. Sorry I was not clearer!

(SLAPS PRINTER) THIS BABY CAN PRINT 8 UNTRACEABLE AR-47 ASSAULT PISTOLS IN 8 HOURS: Sure, it’s a stock illustration the Daily Star used for an article, but still… If only my CR-10 could do this! (I suspect a lot of media folks think it can.)

PENN STATE TELLS CONSERVATIVE STUDENTS THEY ARE WELCOME; IMMEDIATELY REGRETS IT AND DELETES TWEET. How long can universities survive while actively insulting half the population? We’re very close to finding out.

HARVARD ENDS BLACKLIST POLICY AGAINST MEMBERS OF SINGLE-SEX ORGS: No, it didn’t have a change of heart and decide that McCarthyism isn’t OK when Harvard does it. But after the Bostock decision, Harvard’s claims not to have discriminated went from likely loser to sure loser. The biggest losers from this decision, though, are former Harvard President Drew Faust and current Dean of Harvard College Rakesh Khurana, the architects of the policy, both of whom are a testament to what happens when you control infinite money and have no accountability.

FIRE, SPEECH FIRST, INDEPENDENT WOMEN’S LAW CENTER RIDE TO DEFENSE OF FREE SPEECH, TITLE IX REFORM: The ACLU, unfortunately, is the opposing side.

CAMPUSES CENSORING SPEECH ABOUT GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS, AFTERMATH: Predictable as the tides. Temple, for instance, flat-out says “Students who share messages of hate will be reported for disciplinary action.” Sorry, no.

ACLU SUES TO OVERTURN DUE PROCESS PROTECTIONS FOR THE ACCUSED: Headlines I hoped I would never have to write, but feared I would.

SQUARING THE CIRCLE ON THE HOUSE GOP’S DEFENSE OF THE FBI: Tucker Carlson’s pointed questioning of Trey Gowdy last night has a lot of people asking why he and others defended the FBI and intelligence agencies when it now appears they knew there was no “there” there with regard to collusion, Gen. Flynn, etc., suggesting that they were secretly happy to get rid of President Trump. I suggest that, in light of the unaccountable powers these agencies wield now, the historical abuses in which such secret agencies around the world have traditionally engaged, and Sen. Schumer’s famous remark that “you take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” we can’t rule out the possibility that some members of Congress didn’t feel like they had a choice.

HOW COLLEGES GET RID OF CONSERVATIVE ADMINS: Honestly, you’d think they would make sure they could keep a few token right-leaning folks around, for appearance’s sake. That’s just good politics!

AFTER BIDEN ACCUSATION, A LESSON IN DUE PROCESS. Accusations tend to have that effect on people.

CAN COLLEGES SURVIVE CORONAVIRUS? How, oh how, could a college possibly distinguish itself and get a competitive advantage so it can stay in business? Sure, they probably see protecting free speech and academic freedom as their second-to-last resort (their absolute last resort would be ending their incessant efforts to belittle and alienate half of the population), but maybe it’s worth a freaking try at this point. If actually following the principles they claim they have is a bridge too far, they deserve to go under.

WHAT PROVOSTS GET WRONG (ABOUT FREE SPEECH ON CAMPUS): My review of former NYU vice provost and current professor Ulrich Baer’s What Snowflakes Get Right: Free Speech, Truth, and Equality on Campus. The weirdest thing about the book, as I discuss, is its unrelenting partisanship, which almost seems calculated not to change anyone’s mind.

NEW REPORT: PUBLIC COLLEGES CENSOR EXPRESSION ON FACEBOOK PAGES. 77% of the nearly 200 public colleges (every one of them a government agency) FOIAed by FIRE use a secret list of banned words to remove posts on their pages, often engaging in prohibited viewpoint discrimination. They also collectively block posts containing nearly 1800 unique words and phrases that they added themselves, many of which are hilarious. To see the list, scroll to the bottom of the report.

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED. Turns out the anticipated Title IX regulations that would bring crazy, futuristic innovations like “a hearing” and “notice of the charges against you” to college students accused of sexual infractions were delayed by… an orchestrated delay campaign! But you don’t have to take my word for it – take the word of Tulane’s Title IX coordinator, on video at the link.

(Oh yeah, and now they are demanding the regulations be delayed due to coronavirus, because of course they are.)

SANITY ATTACKS UVA LAW; NATIONAL GUARD STUDENT MAY REMAIN AT SCHOOL: Looks like UVA went with Glenn’s “less losing rather than more” option.

EDUCATION DEPARTMENT NEEDS TO ISSUE ITS TITLE IX FIX ASAP: Colleges have had 16 months to analyze the planned Title IX reforms and, outrageously, are now trying to stall their final release by citing the coronavirus. Guess what: it doesn’t take more than 16 months to figure out how to write things like “innocent until proven guilty” into your policies, which more than 70% have still failed to do.

NYU MUZZLING FACULTY ON FRONT LINES OF CORONAVIRUS FIGHT: Delays in communication during a pandemic can cost lives, whatever the intent. That’s one of the main lessons people should already have learned from this pandemic. There is zero reason for our own universities and academic hospitals to make this mistake as well.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR FIRE’S FALL CONFERENCE: Are you a faculty member, of any discipline, with an idea for a paper on academic freedom in your area or elsewhere? Then please submit a proposal for FIRE’s conference at the University of Chicago this fall. Academic freedom needs your support! (Plus, there’s an honorarium.)

CORONAVIRUS PROBABLY ISN’T HELPING: George Leef reviews The Breakdown of Higher Education, just out from Roger Kimball’s Encounter Books.

HOUSE COVID-19 BILL MAY THREATEN FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS. Disturbing analysis from the Institute for Free Speech. The bill reads: “[a]ny corporation that receives Federal aid related to COVID-19 shall, until the date on which all such Federal aid is repaid by the corporation to the Federal Government… not carry out any Federal lobbying activities.” Unless the 1400-page bill has some exception in it somewhere else, this would include not just widget-makers but advocacy groups (disclosure: potentially including my employer, FIRE) that might end up receiving some kind of unemployment, payroll, etc. subsidies, unconstitutionally preventing them from contacting legislators at all.

FREE SPEECH AT FRESHMAN ORIENTATION: When coronavirus fades, the problems on our campuses will remain. That’s why FIRE and NYU’s First Amendment Watch have teamed up to offer six freshman orientation modules that aim to teach students about how free speech works on campus as soon as they get there. Will campuses adopt it? I think people might be surprised at how many administrators would like a way out of the educational dead-end of constant misunderstanding and outrage guaranteed to repeatedly embarrass their schools. There’s a better way!