As Free Speech Is So Often Punished, How Worried Are You?

I wonder what our founders would have thought of this:

Last fall, FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) mailed warning letters to more than 300 public colleges and universities that maintain unconstitutional speech codes explaining that their institution could be sued if it continued to ignore legal obligations under the First Amendment (Students Sue Dixie State U. Over Free Speech Zone, Censorship of Bush, Obama, Che Flyers, thefire.org, March 4).

I continue to be concerned with increasing the protection of free speech not only in colleges and universities because I dont want subsequent generations to become fearful of using this fundamental right of all Americans.

FIRE is the only organization ceaselessly working to keep free speech alive on campuses, from which many of our future voters, legislators and teachers will emerge.

Currently, the group is at work on a lawsuit filed by students at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah, which you may never have heard of.

The lawsuit alleges that Dixie State refused to approve promotional flyers produced by the Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) student group that featured images negatively portraying Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara.

Why?

Because school policy does not permit students to disparage or mock individuals.

Greg Lukianoff, the president of FIRE, rails against the universitys ridiculous policies, which go so far as to forbid any poster in a residence hall that students or administrators claim creates an uncomfortable environment.

This in the land of the free and the home of the brave?

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As Free Speech Is So Often Punished, How Worried Are You?