There is a major free speech fight brewing at Concordia University in Wisconsin where Professor (and Minister) Dr. Gregory Schulz was suspended after he criticized “woke dysphoria” as part of the search for a new university president. Ironically, Schulz is still listed as one of the approved candidates for the position. Continue reading ““Woke Dysphoria” at Concordia? University Suspends Professor After Criticism of Diversity Priorities”
Category: Free Speech
It has become increasingly common for universities to take political positions in support of everything from Black Lives Matter to D.C. Statehood. As such positions increase, there is more and more pressure for official positions to be taken on other subjects. Now, the University of Chicago is being asked to affirm its support of Ukraine after controversial statements from Professor John Mearsheimer. (For full disclosure, I am a graduate of UChicago and Mearsheimer was one of faculty when I was doing strategic studies research at the department). Continue reading “Should Universities Take a Stand on Ukraine? UChicago is Facing That Question” 
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson has withdrawn from being the next commencement speaker at Vassar College following protests over his enforcement of border laws under former President Barack Obama. It is only the latest example of rising intolerance on our campuses. Continue reading “Jeh Johnson Withdraws as Vassar Commencement Speaker After Protests” 
We recently discussed controversies involving Russian artists and athletes being told that they will be cancelled or blacklisted if they do not expressly denounce the Russian invasion of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin. Now that assault on free speech has reached the highest levels of ballet after Tugan Sokhiev, the chief conductor at Bolshoi Theatre and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, resigned rather than be coerced into such public statements. The Munich Philharmonic also dismissed chief conductor Valery Gergiev after he failed to condemn the invasion. Continue reading “Bolshoi Conductor Resigns Over Free Speech Controversy as the Crackdown Continues for Artists and Athletes”
Below is my column in the Hill on the new NUDGE Act, proposed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar to reform social media. It is, in my view, a Trojan horse bill that threatens core free speech values.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Tech Trojan Horse: How the Senate is Poised to Codify Censorship of Social Media”
I recently wrote about the Metropolitan Opera Manager Peter Gelb cancelling soprano Anna Netrebko after she failed to condemn Vladimir Putin. Netrebko, who denounced the Ukrainian invasion, has appeared in pictures with Putin and has said that she will take a hiatus from performing after the controversy. I drew heated objections to my column for defending a supporter of Putin. I was defending free speech rather than Putin but it is an old saw used against civil libertarians when they object to public or private censorship. Now we have a different story out of Formula One racing where Russian driver Nikita Mazepin was dropped by Haas F1 despite a FIA ruling he could compete in Formula One races. The controversy has some unique elements tied to the racing but raises similar issues of compelled speech. Continue reading “Flagging Free Speech or Nepotism? Formula One Team Drops Russian Driver Over Ukraine Invasion”
“It is a great artistic loss for the Met and for opera.” Those words from the Metropolitan Opera Manager Peter Gelb makes it sound like soprano Anna Netrebko has died or lost her voice in some accident. In reality, Netrebko was cancelled for failing to denounce Vladimir Putin. As with the criminalization of support for Putin in some countries, the termination of Netrebko is an attack on free speech. It is perfectly bizarre for the Met to stand against tyranny by attacking free speech, the very right that combats tyranny in all forms. This is not just the day that the music died for Netrebko, it is the day that free speech died at the Met.
Continue reading “Getting the Hook: The Met Cancels Opera Singer for Refusing to Condemn Putin”
This week, the Supreme State Attorney Igor Striz of the Czech Republic announced that the country is moving to criminalize speech supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin or the Russian invasion with sentences of up to three years. It is a curious way to fight tyranny . . . with tyrannical measures against free speech.
We have been following campaigns on college campuses to prevent dissenting or conservative views from being heard, including the recent successful effort to block a Georgetown professor from speaking at Hastings College of Law. Now a new videotape has been posted on conservative sites of protesters shouting down a father who is an opponent of child gender transitions at the University of North Texas.
Continue reading “University North Texas Protesters Cancel Event on Child Gender Transitioning”
We have been following the controversy at Georgetown over the effort to fire conservative law professor Ilya Shapiro. Now, the campaign to cancel Shapiro has extended to other schools, including law schools where free speech should be most fervently and faithfully defended. Yet, students at the UC Hastings College of Law in San Francisco shouted down Shapiro to prevent others from hearing his views on the upcoming confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. What is particularly chilling is to see the support of some faculty in this campaign.
Continue reading “Students Block Shapiro From Speaking at Hastings College of Law”
The University of California at Berkeley has been ground zero for some of our most heated fights over free speech. Conservative speakers have been blocked or cancelled. A Berkeley physicist resigned after faculty and students opposed a presentation by a UChicago physicist due to his questioning the impact of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Faculty and students denounced a history professor who anonymously called for greater academic freedom protections. Now, conservatives are objecting after the discovery of a speech by Berkeley Professor Zeus Leonardo in which he discussed the need “to abolish whiteness.” As will come as little surprise to regulars on the blog, I oppose calls for Leonardo to be fired and believe that this is protected under principles of free speech and academic freedom. Yet, it is the response of the Berkeley faculty and students that is most notable. Continue reading ““Abolish White People”: Berkeley Faces New Free Speech Controversy”
We previously discussed the case of Greg Manco, a former St. Joseph’s University professor who was effectively terminated by the university after a controversy over his criticism of reparations demands. He has now filed a federal lawsuit alleging defamation, and other claims against the university and a variety of individuals, including five alumni and one current faculty member.
By a vote of 185 to 151, the Canadian Parliament voted to approve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s motion to invoke the Emergencies Act. The vote is chilling given the fact that the protest has ended and the roads have been cleared. Nevertheless, the Trudeau government still wants to wield the excessive and unnecessary powers claimed under the Act. The vote shows how easily many drift into more and more draconian measures against their political opponents.
Public Health Scotland (PHS) is upset that critics are using its data to oppose Covid mandates and policies. PHS believes that the anti-vaxxers are seizing on the data to undermine its case for continued mandates. One official is quoted as saying that “[t]he case rates, hospitalization rates, the death rates are very simple statistics” and critics are misreading the data “inappropriately and sometimes willfully.” The solution? PHS will reportedly stop sharing the data with the public. It appears that it is not enough for companies like Twitter to ban critics from social media. Now, citizens will be protected not just from opposing views but information that will only confuse them. Continue reading “Public Health Scotland Stops Releasing Covid Data to Protect The Public From Reaching Bad Conclusions”
The Trudeau government went public this week with a condemnation of Cuba over its lack of free speech protections as the government deployed unprecedented powers to crackdown on Canadian truckers and their supporters. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has invoked the 1988 Emergencies Act for the first time to freeze accounts of truckers and contributions by other Canadian citizens. It was entirely unnecessary and, while the media is largely supportive of Trudeau, the powers have been condemned by civil liberties groups in Canada. Continue reading “Oh Canada: Trudeau’s Government Condemns Cuba Over Free Speech As Canada Cracks Down on Free Speech”