What Yale Law School Taught Me About Free Speech and Friendship
For FAIR’s Substack, Jonathan Kay writes about his experience at Yale Law School and whether or not his experience could be replicated in today’s polarized political landscape.
But I do wonder if that would have been the case if my Yale experience were shifted a quarter century into the future. In the hashtag era, would my time-traveling classmates and I still have been able to keep our politics in parentheses as we embarked on our law school adventure? Or would I be sitting alone in a corner of the cafe, inviting conversations that would never happen?
EXPLAINER: Why Marco Rubio’s arguments for deporting noncitizens for speech are wrong
For FIRE’s Newsdesk, FAIR’s chairman of the board Angel Eduardo explains how the First Amendment prohibits Congress from enacting laws penalizing speakers because of their opinions, no matter their immigration status.
The implications here should be obvious. If there is a credible threat of the government revoking your visa and engaging in deportation proceedings for speech you publish in your school newspaper, you’re unlikely to take the risk. This not only violates the First Amendment rights of these noncitizens, it also harms the ability of all citizens to read and hear perspectives about matters of public importance that the current administration doesn’t like.
Public Schools Are Molds Not Platforms
For The Next 30 Years, FAIR Advisor Robert Pondiscio writes about why teaching must recover the humility and neutrality appropriate to public service
To put it plainly, public school teachers are state actors. Their speech and conduct are appropriately limited by that fact. When they cross those boundaries—whether in service of the left or the right—they betray the civic purpose of their role. Seen through this lens, neutrality is not cowardice; it is a civic virtue that is required to sustain or restore or faith in public education .
A Conversation on Faith and Political Values
FAIR Advisor Shadi Hamid speaks with Ross Douthat, Kaitlyn Schiess, and Daniel Mark about faith and political values.
The Self-Sabotage of the Conservative Movement
For Free Black Thought, Marcus Watkins writes about the right’s complacency with bigotry.
This complacency isn’t just ethically bankrupt; it’s politically suicidal. The 2024 gains among Latinos, Blacks, and Asians were built on trust. A trust that we see each other as fellow Americans, not punching bags for juvenile hate. Exit polls showed minority voters crediting Trump for inflation-fighting and resistance to a chronically corrupt establishment, not racial resentment.
However, leaks like this fuel the left’s narrative: Republicans as a party of white grievance and racism. Imagine a Latino family in Texas, newly energized by our border message, scrolling X and seeing Young Republicans joking about “raping” opponents or gassing foes. Or a Black entrepreneur in Detroit, drawn by tax cuts, stumbling on Hitler fandom from future GOP leaders. These aren’t hypotheticals; they’re backlash waiting to happen. If we let this fester, we’ll forfeit the diverse coalition that delivered our mandate, reverting to a shrinking white base while Democrats regroup with targeted outreach.
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The Round Up seems a bit selective: defending riot- rousing public “from the river to the sea” by a non-citizen but condemning the private nazi jokes from some citizen students.
Civil rights to equal pains and punishments, to own and sell property, and to negotiate and enforce one's contracts. It doesn't matter on what basis my rights are violated. The selective enforcement of civil rights on behalf of protected classes violates my civil rights to equal protection of the law. I am discriminated against not by my race or gender but by omission.