This paper focuses on how undergraduate students on five public university campuses perceived and reacted to religious coercion. We identified three sources of coercion: (a) public proselytizers, (b) peers, and (c) academic faculty whose expression of beliefs was perceived as implicitly coercive by students who often connected religious beliefs to…

This policy memo examines some fundamental shifts, along with their real-world implications, within the past 60 years of Supreme Court jurisprudence, up to and including the current "Carson v. Makin" case. The Supreme Court is just a few small steps away from transforming every charter school law in the U.S. into a private-school voucher…

Heated battles over free speech have erupted on college campuses across the United States in recent months. Some of the most prominent incidents involve efforts by students to prevent public appearances by speakers espousing controversial viewpoints. Efforts to silence offensive speakers on college campuses are not new; in these endeavors, one can…

The U.S. Supreme Court has called America's colleges and universities "vital centers for the Nation's intellectual life," but the reality today is that many of these institutions severely restrict free speech and open debate. Speech codes--policies prohibiting student and faculty speech that would, outside the bounds of campus, be…

In the wake of institutionalized homophobia afflicting public schools, the nation faces a unique opportunity to acknowledge and transform the assumption that all people are or should be heterosexual and gender-conforming. In this article, the author examines how people, as a nation, can reform schools to be more inclusive of diverse student…

Each year, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) conducts a rigorous survey of restrictions on speech at America's colleges and universities. The survey and accompanying report explore the extent to which schools are meeting their legal and moral obligations to uphold students' and faculty members' rights to freedom of speech,…

This case study focuses on issues of freedom of speech and freedom of religion in public schools. It involves a rural, southern high school where a group of students participated in a Day of Silence. The school allowed the students to participate based on the principal's understanding of the students' First Amendment rights. However, the next day,…

Each year, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) conducts a rigorous survey of restrictions on speech at America's colleges and universities. The survey and resulting report explore the extent to which schools are meeting their legal and moral obligations to uphold students' and faculty members' rights to freedom of speech,…

Each year, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) conducts a wide, detailed survey of restrictions on speech at America's colleges and universities. The survey and resulting report explore the extent to which schools are meeting their obligations to uphold students' and faculty members' rights to freedom of speech, freedom of…

The essays of this collection explore the restriction of speech and the hate speech codes that attempt to restrict bigoted or offensive speech and punish those who engage in it. These essays generally argue that speech restrictions are dangerous and counterproductive, but they acknowledge that it is very difficult to distinguish between…

In the case of RAV v. City of St. Paul, a teenager was charged with violating the city's Bias-Motivated Crime Ordinance after being accused of burning a cross inside the fenced yard of a black family. In a 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court struck down the St. Paul ordinance, a decision which raised a question as to whether many college and…

This article presents a teaching case that involves the presentation of an actual incident in which a state commission on judicial performance had to balance a judge's First Amendment rights to protected free speech against his public statements about a societal class/group that were deemed to be derogatory and inflammatory and, hence, cast…

River Run High School, located in rural west central Florida, was the site for a case study of student conflict precipitated by the wearing and display of Confederate flags on campus. Following a series of tense student encounters over Confederate and other racist symbols, a conflict resolution team was invited to intervene. Team members created a…

Groups that often find themselves on opposing sides of the cultural war over gay rights have bridged their divide to draft consensus guidelines designed to help public schools address sexual-orientation issues with sensitivity and respect. Representatives from the Christian Educators Association International and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight…

One's commitment to intellectual freedom is manifested not just in the creation of a strong and clear selection policy or the celebration of Banned Books Week but by his or her willingness to examine his or her practices openly with others. In this article, the author proposes four questions to explore in one's teaching and in professional…