Breaking down our 2027 College Free Speech Rankings
So to Speak: The Free Speech PodcastEp. 282
Harvard, institutional neutrality, how we determine the rankings, partisan censorship, how schools can improve their ranking, and more!
FIRE Newsdesk
Free speech news as it happens from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression covering civil rights advocacy and First Amendment litigation.
Why would someone post that?
Analysis
Press Releases
USC earns FIRE's top rating for free speech
Press Release
The U.S. military is at war with its own newspaper
Analysis
The Pentagon fired Stars and Stripes leaders after they defended editorial independence, raising alarms over military control of its own press.
This Michigan city threatened critics over ‘cyberbullying.’ Now it’s hiding the evidence.
Analysis
When government officials threaten to sue and prosecute their constituents over speech, the public should get to see the evidence.
The Jason Arday tragedy cannot justify a crackdown on the press
Analysis
His death leads to hard questions. But it must not lead to censorship.
Campus hecklers are silencing pro-Israel speakers. Speech codes are not the fix.
Analysis
Campus hecklers can silence pro-Israel speakers. But vague antisemitism rules risk a second kind of censorship. Universities should reject both.
WATCH VIDEO: In the final installment of a two-part episode of 1AX, FIRE follows Trump's escalating use of government power against protected speech since January 2025.
Watch Part 2 of 'Free Speech in Donald Trump's America'
FIRE Documentary
President Trump came back to office in 2025 promising to stop government censorship. But the first 18 months of the second Trump administration have resulted in more high-profile government censorship, not less. What started as a dramatic clash over press freedom has expanded into a nationwide censorship campaign, from college campuses to the streets of Minneapolis.
Artificial intelligence, free speech, and the First Amendment
How should we think about speech rights in the age of artificial intelligence and advanced robotics? In this series of essays, FIRE Legislative Analyst Tyler Tone answers common questions about the intersection of free speech and AI.
Can the government require ID before you use artificial intelligence?
Analysis
Age checks for AI could become ID checks, threatening privacy, anonymity, and the freedom to ask questions, learn, and explore ideas online.
What has FIRE been doing in the AI space?
Analysis
How did FIRE become a leading voice on AI? By defending free speech in legislatures, courts, research, and emerging technology.
How does the First Amendment apply to AI?
Analysis
AI isn’t authorless. Every chatbot reply reflects human choices — and the First Amendment protects both its creation and your access.
What does AI have to do with the First Amendment?
Analysis
Applying First Amendment principles to AI-generated expression is both a natural extension of those principles and a necessary step to prevent those principles’ weakening in other applications, including in areas like newspapers and video games.
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Expression
From breaking news analysis and legal battles to cultural trends, this is where we go beyond the headlines — taking you into the fight to defend the First Amendment and bringing you the stories that shape free speech in America.
The Eternally Radical Idea
What is the Eternally Radical Idea? It is freedom of speech. The unfettered right to state your opinion is extremely rare in human history. Check out FIRE CEO Greg Lukianoff's blog on Substack.
So to Speak: The Free Speech Podcast
We are a podcast community that explores free speech: not just free speech’s applicability under the law, but also its place in our life and culture.
Figures of Speech
As America marks 250 years of independence, FIRE looks back at the moments that tested the freedoms at the heart of the American experiment.
Explore the heroes and villains of free speech in American history
Woodrow Wilson: America’s worst president for free speech
Analysis
Before he championed democracy abroad, Woodrow Wilson built America's first modern censorship regime, jailing dissenters and crushing opposition in the name of war.
Ida B. Wells: Journalist, activist, civil rights icon, and free speech hero
Analysis
In 1892, a mob destroyed a Memphis newspaper after it published an anti lynching editorial. Through death threats and violence, they tried to erase journalist Ida B. Wells’s message. Instead, they made her fight impossible to ignore.
Thomas Paine: American history’s winter soldier
Analysis
Two hundred fifty years after "Common Sense," Thomas Paine’s life reminds us that free speech and free thought are the lifeblood of a free society.
How Anthony Comstock became America’s most powerful censor
Analysis
Anthony Comstock turned Victorian panic into federal censorship, criminalizing “obscene” speech and policing American morality. This is his story.
Free Speech Dispatch
Brought to you by FIRE's Senior Scholar for Global Expression, the Free Speech Dispatch is a regular series covering new and continuing censorship trends and challenges around the world. Our goal is to help readers better understand the global context of free expression.
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