MARVEL LAUNCHES NEW HEROES, INCLUDING “SAFESPACE” and “SNOWFLAKE.”  Appears to be real, as it’s on Marvel’s website too.

THEY’VE BEEN WORKIN’ ON THE RAILROAD… But there’s nothing the courts can do about this case at the University of Denver, says the Tenth Circuit, ruling it not a Title IX violation. Railroad is the court’s word, not mine: “[A]n accumulation of irregularities all disfavoring the respondent becomes deeply troubling because benign, stochastic explanations for the errors become implausible. Instead, it looks more like a railroading.” People want schools sued for stuff like this, but it’s important to realize that lawsuits simply can’t and won’t fix the problem of unaccountable and irresponsible college administrators.

WHY CAN’T WE TRUST THE CHINESE ON CORONAVIRUS? NO FREE SPEECH. No doubt many of the same people who would agree that we can’t trust what the Chinese Communist Party has to say on COVID-19 would also be happy to see speech here in America silenced, though maybe on other topics. In this preview entry for his upcoming blog, FIRE president Greg Lukianoff offers a longish read on why “the marketplace of ideas” isn’t the whole show when it comes to freedom of speech — it’s also about knowing the way the world actually is.

WHO SAYS BERKELEY PROFS ARE OUT OF TOUCH? This physics prof is ready for SHTF teaching with backup plans for his backup plans. Though as a ham operator myself, I do want to note that digital modes like Olivia and JS8Call are very robust and much more accessible than CW as long as you have a computer.

A COLLEGE FINALLY GETS WHAT IT DESERVES: In Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s case, that’s a Lifetime Censorship Award from FIRE. I mean that literally (not Joe Biden literally, literally literally) – FIRE traveled to RPI and handed a trophy to them, a process that somehow necessitated the presence of a dozen campus police, because what doesn’t these days?

BUT MY 501(C)3 STATUS! Every campaign cycle, students get told that they can’t campaign on campus because it will put the college at some kind of risk. (It won’t.) Today FIRE sent this advisory to every presidential campaign telling them to look out for this, but we could use your help making sure other campaigns know this as well. If you know someone who works on a campaign, from director on down to college student, please consider shooting them a link so they know what to look out for!

FEELIN’ THE BERN IN NEVADA: So at what point does the political establishment realize that it’s not a coincidence that the most popular figures in each of the major parties are the ones the establishment most obviously can’t stand, and start making some adjustments?

“HE HAD PLEADED GUILTY TO SIX NON-CRIMES.” Reading about President Trump’s pardon of Michael Milken today, I was reminded of this passage from Three Felonies a Day by Harvey Silverglate, who, when he wasn’t founding FIRE, had (and still has) a “normal” job as a criminal defense lawyer. Possibly related: Rudy Giuliani, who backed Milken’s pardon, was also Milken’s prosecutor.

PADDLING CONTROVERSY GETS INDIANA U. “SEXFEST” CANCELED: Yep, it’s what you think, and yep, there’s (fairly underwhelming) video.

People often wonder why free speech organizations like FIRE spend time defending unpopular or fringe expression. This case is a great example of why. IU Provost Lauren Robel, who ordered an unnecessary “investigation” into the paddling demonstration, last made the news less than 3 months ago when she publicly condemned Professor Eric Rasmusen for tweeting things deemed insufficiently pro-woman. That the same person is behind both efforts is no coincidence. When a government bureaucrat takes on the job of regulating the expression of adults, nobody is safe.

FAILING UPWARDS: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute made FIRE’s Top 10 Worst Colleges for Free Speech list for a lot of reasons, several involving wacky misadventures in policing (like claiming students could not hand out flyers because of “eminent domain“). So, of course, there’s now a bill in the New York State Senate that would upgrade RPI public safety officers to “real” police, for reasons that I can only assume are super-awesome and not at all part of the administration grabbing even more power.

ROMNEY ANNOUNCES HE IS VOTING TO CONVICT. That is a pretty substantial gift to the Democrats, no matter how you look at it.

HOW THE HOUSE LOST THE WITNESSES ALONG WITH THE IMPEACHMENT: Prof. Jonathan Turley writes, “[t]he case against the president could only have become stronger” if the House had taken more time to develop a stronger record, and complains that “[n]one of the explanations offered by House Democrats [for not doing this] make any logical sense.” Yes, sometimes what seem like bad decisions really are nonsensical — but sometimes it turns out that you just didn’t understand the decision-makers’ real goals, or their assessment of the risks. Given the high stakes and the people involved, which is more likely here?

THE TEN WORST COLLEGES FOR FREE SPEECH, 2020 EDITION: Harvard’s on it. So is Portland State. Is your school? Plus a lifetime censorship award!

MORE GOOD NEWS FROM THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT? This isn’t the big-deal final Title IX regulation (yet), but proposed new grant requirements could be a boon to student free speech and free association rights all the same. Of course, caution is always recommended — it’s a government regulation, after all!

WOW, THAT’S QUITE A COINCIDENCE: “The New York Times published an eerie opinion piece on Thursday that used a potential attack on Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani as a hypothetical scenario hours before the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force was actually killed in remarkably similar fashion… ‘Is there an individual in an unfriendly country who cannot be apprehended? What if the former commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Qassem Soleimani, visits Baghdad for a meeting and you know the address? The temptations to use hypersonic missiles will be many,’ Simon wrote.”

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE SNIDE TO BE A COLLEGE ADMINISTRATOR, BUT IT HELPS. Holy Cross Dean of Students Michele C. Murray, on a talk by WSJ’s Heather Mac Donald: “The subtext of her talk was that discrimination no longer exists, or at least that we should not be bothered by it. Our students understood her message, even dressed as it was in Frederick Douglass quotes and references to ‘Faust’ and the virtues of the Western canon.” The students to whom she refers left en masse 15 minutes into Mac Donald’s talk. For this combination of mind-reading and anti-intellectualism, students and parents pay $69,810 a year.

USA TODAY: ONLY 63% OF AMERICANS WOULD MISS FREE SPEECH IF IT WERE TAKEN AWAY. I blame Twitter. But these numbers seem weirdly low generally: “nearly half would miss freedom of expression (46%) and the right to equal justice (45%).”

IN WAR [AGAINST WRONGTHINK], TRUTH IS THE FIRST CASUALTY: The University of Pennsylvania had long been one of the few colleges that did not have any written speech codes. Now that it’s brought them back, surprise–admins aren’t telling the truth about it!

C’MON, MAN. Public university rejects animal rights club, citing ‘emotional risk’ to students. Oh no! Vegetarians! Run!

“YIKES, NOPE, DENIED”: University of Scranton just stands by as student government denies recognition to conservative group.

FIRE’S 2020 SPEECH CODE RATINGS OUT TODAY: Of the 471 rated colleges across the country, 89% still have red- or yellow-light ratings for having written policies that censor speech, which is outrageous. But for the very first time, more than 10% have green lights. (OK, 11%, but hey, it’s more than 10!) Odds are good your alma mater is in the ratings. How’d it do?

THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI GOES GREEN (FOR FREE SPEECH ON CAMPUS): Hooray for Jackson State University, whose move to a green-light speech code rating from FIRE means that Mississippi joins Arizona as the only two states whose top colleges have eliminated all unconstitutional speech codes. For once, taxpayers least hard hit!

AFTER REPORT OF RACIST INCIDENT, SYRACUSE SUSPENDS ALL FRATERNITIES, EVEN MINORITY ONES. Syracuse has gone utterly bonkers over a series of racial incidents on its campus, but this guilt-by-lack-of-association is nonsensical even in that light. This is total disconnection with reality, at $74,799 a year.

INVESTIGATE ALL THE THINGS! Congress doesn’t get to have all the fun today. Six(!) Ohio universities have called in the FBI to investigate stickers, graffiti, or other offensive postings. The Kekistani culprit at Western Connecticut appears to remain at large despite FBI involvement. George Washington University is investigating Snapchats all on its own, though, so it’s possible that the FBI is running out of agents to throw at the national crisis of people saying stuff other people don’t like.

IT IS IN FACT OK TO SAY ‘IT’S OK TO BE WHITE’ ON A PUBLIC CAMPUS. As long as you follow the posting rules! That’s not going to change just because Western Connecticut State University’s president is running around with his hair on fire promising “the severest disciplinary actions, including dismissal as well as possible civil and criminal actions” if a student is found to be the culprit. Also, talk about making the anonymous poster’s point for him (or her)…