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Volume 101 - Issue 5

Academic Freedom To Deny the Truth: Beyond the Holocaust

By Robert M. O’Neil. Full text here. The concept of academic freedom is so widely accepted and well established that it may even subvert a commitment to truth, and this freedom cannot be casually disregarded despite a speaker’s dissonance with scientific precept. So it was with Myron Ebell, then-President-elect Trump’s choice to lead the EPA transition…

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Free Speech, Higher Education, and the PC Narrative

By Heidi Kitrosser. Full text here. This Article reviews discussions in the press about campus political correctness (PC) and free speech during two periods of intense interest in the same. The first is the period from 1989–1995, when the term political correctness first came into popular use and as campus communities, politicians, and the public at…

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A Close-up, Modern Look at First Amendment Academic Freedom Rights of Public College Students and Faculty

By Vikram David Amar & Alan E. Brownstein. Full text here. Like many other terms bandied about these days, “academic freedom” is something that means different things to different people, and for that reason is often misunderstood. In this Article, we focus on what, if any, special freedoms of expression are enjoyed under the First Amendment…

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Four Ironies of Campus Climate

By Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic. Full text here. The controversy over campus climate contains several components, including safe spaces, ethnic studies departments and faculty, trigger warnings, and crackdowns on hate speech and micro-aggressions. Of all these, the last three, which concern speech, have been the most hotly contested. Debates over hate speech and campus conduct…

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Campus Speech and Harassment

By Alexander Tsesis. Full text here. A theoretical question that runs through the debate on the constitutionality of campus speech codes asks whether free speech values are best preserved by categorical rules or balancing factors. Whether campus codes are constitutional should be analyzed through a doctrinal and statutory framework developed outside university settings, in cases involving…

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The Free Speech Rights of University Students

By Mary-Rose Papandrea. Full text here. As questions regarding the freedom of expression on college campuses grip the country, courts adjudicating First Amendment cases in the higher education setting are struggling to determine the appropriate legal framework. Some courts are relying on Supreme Court cases from the K–12 setting as well as the public employment context;…

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