Free Republic

COLD SPRING, Minn. — There was drama on the first two days of school in the Rocori school district. On Tuesday, students at Rocori High School — about 20 miles southwest of St. Cloud — were greeted by a new policy prohibiting flags and banners from being displayed on vehicles in the school parking lot. The controversial rule was bucked by students Wednesday, Sept. 7, with numerous American flags defiantly hanging from trucks that lined the lot. By the afternoon, students and school officials had come to an agreement that allows for the respectful display of the American flag. Julie...

Back in January of 2016, I sent a letter to UNC-Wilmington President Jose Sartarelli, which was copied to all 16 members of the Board of Trustees. I later published the same letter on Townhall.com. In my letter, which you can read here, I accused the university of having at least two policies that clearly violated the First Amendment. I then asked the administration to work with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) to do an audit of our policies and then revise them towards the goal of attaining a coveted green light rating from FIRE. For those not...

Cherokee County School District has released a statement about the t-shirt ‘incident’: Dear Parents, On behalf of the Superintendent, this message is to provide you with more information about a story currently circulating in the media and on social media regarding an incident at one of our high schools. In this regard, a River Ridge High School math teacher on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017 erroneously told two students their shirts with campaign slogans were not permitted in class. Her actions were wrong, as the “Make America Great Again” shirts worn by the students are not a violation of our School...

Berkeley’s mayor is pressuring the town’s flagship university to cancel its upcoming “free speech week” just days after the school’s chancellor vowed to defend the First Amendment on campus. As Campus Reform previously reported, University of California, Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ welcomed students to campus last week with a forceful defense of free speech, vowing to “hold accountable” those who use violence to shut down speakers.

A bill that passed the California state senate and is now moving through the Assembly could threaten jail time for anyone who refuses to use a transgender person’s preferred pronoun. The law is currently limited in its effects to nursing homes and intermediate-care facilities, but if passed, those who “willfully and repeatedly” refuse “to use a transgender resident’s preferred name or pronouns” could be slapped with a $1,000 fine and up to one year in prison, according to the California Heath and Safety code. The state senate passed the bill 26-12 at the end of May. Since then, the Assembly...

Today's counter-revolution against liberty is being fought on a number of fronts in American society. One is on college and university campuses across the country, where the ideology of "political correctness" is strangling freedom of speech and smothering intellectual controversy and debate. Critical to this campaign is the capture of language. It is through our language that we think about ourselves, our relationships to others, and the social order surrounding us. Words do not merely delineate objects, individuals, events or actions. Words also create mental imageries, emotions, attitudes, and beliefs that color how people see themselves and the world around...

[ * * * ] As campuses around the country have simmered and erupted in polarized protests and debates in recent years, more are considering how they can help students navigate free expression – sometimes with a push from legislators. This year Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and North Carolina have mandated campus free speech policies, and a handful of other states are considering such laws. Some schools have decided that First Amendment instruction should be included right from the start, during a time typically reserved for talk of meal plans and dorm rules. “We needed to take the opportunity in orientation...

California is on its way to passing a new law that makes it illegal to call transgender senior citizens a pronoun they don't like. For example, if an elderly person who was born male and lives in a long-term care facility wishes to be called "her" or "she," the workers there had better do it or face the consequences. The proposed law would even apply to Christian facilities. SB 219, titled the "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Long-Term Care Facility Resident's Bill of Rights," states, "It shall be unlawful for a long-term care facility or facility staff to.... willfully and...

A recent “black power” student takeover at Evergreen State College in May shocked and appalled many Americans. Students were seen shouting “BLACK POWER!” inches away from a disoriented-looking white professor’s face while, ironically, later on claiming “whiteness is the most violent system to ever breathe!” The Gateway Pundit learned that the President of Evergreen State College in Washington State, George S. Bridges, stated that he is “grateful” for the “passion and courage” of the “black power” students who can be seen in footage harassing white professors and attempting to shut down classes. In the footage, the students were shouting expletives...

How the AP Stylebook censors ‘pro-life’ and other conservative words | TheHill http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/media/341210-how-the-ap-stylebook-censors-pro-life-and-other-conservative-words July 09, 2017 - 04:20 PM EDT How the AP Stylebook censors ‘pro-life’ and other conservative words AssociatedPress By Rachel Alexander, opinion contributor A journalism stylebook is supposed to provide universal guidelines for writers when it comes to stylistic things like punctuation, capitalization and so on. This includes choosing certain words over others. The original intent of word preference was to use words that are more neutral than others. But in recent years, that concept has changed. More often than not, style writers have been more interested...

Colleges should “screen” speakers to ensure that they are not giving a platform to “intolerant perspectives,” a University of Maryland student argues in a recent op-ed. “There is nothing inherently wrong with screening speakers, teachers and even students on the campus,” sophomore Moshe Klein declares in an op-ed for The Diamondback, arguing that “intolerant” points of view “prevent certain groups of people from participating in campus life safely.”

Portland, Oregon Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, has acted to suspend the First Amendment rights of Trump supporters and those opposed to Islamic sharia law by banning demonstrations planned for Portland in the coming weeks, following the killings of two men (and the wounding of a third man) who intervened against a man harassing a Muslim woman and her friend on public transportation. Wheeler is also demanding the federal government do the same and revoke or not issue demonstration permits for the rallies which are set to be held on federal property in Portland.

Does The Washington Post editorial board have the slightest familiarity with First Amendment precedents? In response to the racist-banana incident at the private American University – now under investigation by the U.S. attorney in D.C. as well as the FBI – the editorial board has declared that all colleges should censor students if someone thinks their speech or behavior is racist:

The lie we were told as kids was this: The end of American liberty would come at the hands of the political right. Conservatives would take away our right to speak our minds, and use the power of government to silence dissent. The right would intimidate our teachers and professors, and coerce the young. And then, with the universities in thrall, with control of the apparatus of the state (and the education bureaucracy), the right would have dominion over a once-free people. Some of us were taught this in school. Others, who couldn't be bothered to read books, were fed...

The left loves embracing the idea of "tolerance," yet the rest of us have long observed that all the Left ever seems tolerant of is itself. A new survey from Dartmouth College provides yet more evidence that the volatile political divide in this country is being caused by the intolerant left: In the campus-wide field survey, students of all political stripes were asked how comfortable they would be about living with a roommate who holds opposing political views. Of the 432 students surveyed, only 39 percent of students who identified as Democrats said they would feel comfortable living with a...

At the University of Florida, a student was recently penalized for writing “man” instead of “humankind” in a class paper. History major Martin Poirier wrote “Water is a thing prior to man” on a paper for a history class called “History of Water.” “Thoughtful paper, although the writing-mechanics errors are killing you,” Professor Jack Davis wrote at the bottom of the paper. He gave the student a B minus, according to a copy of the essay published in the student news outlet the Daily Nerv. Davis circled “man” and referenced his Writing Mechanics Exercise #20, which draws a distinction between...

Fresh off our First Amendment victory in Berkeley, California’s Trump supporters and conservatives around the country rallied to hear President Trump’s 100 Days Celebration Speech. You know what? He’s doing a great job. Of course, there are critics. One libertarian-leaning millennial friend of me complained about how Trump spends so much time gloating over accomplishments. My retort? His accomplishments are mine—are our victories. Second, people can pound their chests when they have done great things—Michael Jordan could trash-talk the best on the court because he ended up besting them. Finally, I quipped: “If you don’t like, don’t listen. First...

Republicans never have been particularly good at the culture war. Sure, they won battles here and there. But even most of those victories turned into losses through court decisions anyway. Now we’re in the midst of the ultimate battle in the culture war – the battle for the First Amendment – and if Republicans don’t recognize this is a war and fight like their existence depends on victory, nothing else will matter. If you had told me five years ago that, in 2017, we’d be debating the nature of free speech and whether American citizens could be blocked from speaking...

Author’s Note: This column contains some bad language from a critic – although I don’t mind. The fact that I am receiving flak shows that I am flying over the target.Good Afternoon, Margaret (president@northcarolina.edu):I am sure that you will recall an interview you gave back in January in which you characterized my political views as “hate speech.” I know that you and other administrators have been concerned that my views are causing prospective students to decline to enroll in the UNC system. A phone call I recently received from the parent of one prospective student shows that your fears are...

The New York Times published an op-ed Monday by New York University comparative literature professor Ulrich Baer, who argued that those young protesters derided as campus "snowflakes" who violently oppose speakers who offend leftist sensibilities are actually getting it right about free speech. Indeed, Baer concludes, "We should thank the student protestors, the activists in Black Lives Matter and other 'overly sensitive' souls for keeping watch over the soul of our republic." No we shouldn't. We must be vigilant against those totalitarian students, activists, and snowflakes in defense of our republic's soul.