On May 5th, the Knight Foundation and Gallup released the 2020 First Amendment on Campus report, an online survey of more than 3,000 full-time undergraduate students, and a large cohort of students from historically black colleges and universities. The First Amendment survey began in the spring of 2016, and the respondents for the 2020 report were queried in the fall of 2019, well before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lawsuit Over Chalking Ban Dropped After Iowa State University Changes Some of Its Policies
A lawsuit filed in January against Iowa State University (ISU) has been dropped after the university agreed to amend some of its policies in an out-of-court settlement signed on March 10th.
Iowa State University Faces Lawsuit After Banning Chalk Messages
“Through the use of three policies –a ban on chalking, a prohibition on student emails related to campaigns and elections, and a Campus Climate Reporting System–Iowa State University has created an elaborate investigative and enforcement regime designed to chill speech concerning political and social issues of public concern,” Speech First said in a statement on its site.
California Town Looks to Amend Anti-Panhandling Law to Address Free Speech Concerns
A city council in Eureka, California is planning to amend a 2016 ordinance that regulated “aggressive and intrusive” panhandling after concerns that the law likely violated the First Amendment.
FIRE Releases Annual Report On The State Of Free Speech On College Campuses
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) released its annual report on the state of free speech on college and university campuses. In this year’s analysis, the majority of the schools (64%), scored a yellow light rating, and just 11% earned a green light designation. However, it’s important to note that in the past decade, that number has increased from just eight institutions in 2009 to 52 in 2019.
Broome County Legislators Want to Criminalize “Annoying” First Responders
Broome County legislators have introduced a bill that would criminalize any behavior that “annoy, alarm, or threaten the safety of any emergency first responder.” According to Scott Baker, a Republican legislator who introduced the bill, it was in response to recent events around the country, including a protest at a Columbus Day parade in the town of Binghamton, NY.
Tech Executive Severs Ties With Extremist Site Linked to El Paso Shooting
Matthew Prince, the chief executive of the San Francisco cyber security company, Cloudflare, has cut ties with 8chan, the anonymous message board where the El Paso killer posted his manifesto. […]
Columbia President Lee Bollinger Weighs In On The State of Campus Speech
Columbia University president and First Amendment scholar Lee Bollinger writes about the state of free speech on college campuses. Despite President Trump’s claim that an executive order was necessary to […]