Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression

The debates and questions surrounding free speech in 1776 are still being asked today, and we’ve got the answers.

Join FIRE’s Executive Vice President Nico Perrino, who will be accompanied by Professor Bruce Murphy of Lafayette College, for a webinar on the history and evolution of free speech in America, hosted by the F. M. Kirby Foundation.

Live tomorrow, June 2 at 12:30 PM ET.

Sign up now! 👇

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Reflections at 250: The Independence of Declaration. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Nico Perrino, Vice President of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), and Bruce Murphy, F. M. Kirby Professor of Civil Rights at Lafayette College, trace the evolution of free speech from the founding era to today. This session examines how the principle of free expression has....

Free speech can be shocking, hurtful, or offensive.

And that’s exactly how it should be. Soapbox, our free speech conference, will be a place where we exercise a right many around the world don’t have.

Secure your spot now. 🎟️ https://soapbox.fire.org/Soapbox/

Free speech is being tested in real time across AI systems, social platforms, and emerging technologies.

We’re hiring a Lead Counsel, Tech & Free Expression Policy to help shape how speech is protected and regulated in this fast-changing tech landscape.

If you’re a lawyer who cares about the First Amendment and the future of online expression, we encourage you to apply.

💼: https://www.fire.org/careers/lead-counsel-tech-and-free-expression-policy

This week in free speech:

👉 California school investigates student paper after front-page feature of an anti-Zionism protest banner
👉 Romanian prosecutors added charges against influencer Andrew Tate
👉 A former Ball State administrator will receive $225K after suing the university for firing her over a private Facebook post she made criticizing Charlie Kirk

Catch the latest in this week’s FIREwire. ⬇️

FIREwire — May 29, 2025 California drops probe into student paper, Belgian activist convicted for spreading facts, and Andrew Tate charged for sexist posts

What began with a box of confiscated materials presented to Congress became a federal system for deciding what Americans could read, see, and circulate.

Anthony Comstock helped build one of the most sweeping censorship regimes in American history, one that reached far beyond “obscenity” into ideas themselves.

Over time, courts rolled back many of the laws he helped shape, narrowing obscenity standards and expanding constitutional protections for private life and expression. But the underlying logic never fully disappeared.

Every era produces its own “comstockery," where speech is framed as harm, and suppression is framed as protection.

📝: https://expression.fire.org/p/how-anthony-comstock-became-americas

We defended Larry Bushart and secured him $835,000 from Perry County, TN for violating his constitutional rights.

The First Amendment protected Larry. FIRE protected the First Amendment.

Now it’s your turn to join the Free Speech Movement.👇

🔥 https://www.thefire.org/donate

A new study finds that donations from faculty at top universities have become increasingly one-sided, with the range of opinion concentrated on the left.

In fact, the average faculty donor is only slightly less left-leaning than Senator Bernie Sanders.

Researchers analyzed campaign contribution data from faculty donors at 55 universities. Compared to the U.S. Congress, faculty donors appear tightly clustered on the left, with almost no conservative representation in the graph below.

Past surveys also find that professors with minority viewpoints increasingly self-censor due to fear of backlash from colleagues.

This raises concerns about campus climate. Universities can work to strengthen viewpoint diversity while preserving academic freedom by avoiding ideological screening, adopting institutional neutrality, and applying transparent rules that protect open inquiry.

If universities want graduates who can think for themselves, they must put viewpoint diversity and open inquiry at the forefront. ➡️ https://www.fire.org/news/new-fire-study-finds-narrowing-range-political-views-among-faculty-donors