FIRE's Guide to Free Speech on Campus

Since its first publication in 2005, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has distributed more than 138,000 print and online copies of its "Guide to Free Speech on Campus." In that time, FIRE's commitment to advocating on behalf of the essential rights discussed in the pages that follow has remained unwavering; however, threats to free speech on campus have evolved sufficiently over the past six years to necessitate a new, revised edition of this "Guide." Campuses have changed, too--in many cases, for the better, as students educated by this book have worked with FIRE to fight for student rights by reforming unconstitutional and illiberal speech codes and ending myriad abuses of student liberties. In addition to its more than 200 public victories and many more private ones, FIRE has impacted the legal landscape as well; several of the new cases cited in this "Guide" are the result of FIRE's coordinated challenges to illiberal and illegal restrictions on student speech. However, despite FIRE's sustained success, more work remains to be done. Too many campuses still silence students who dare exercise their right to free expression. It is FIRE's sincere hope, therefore, that this second edition of its "Guide to Free Speech" reaches every student who needs it--and it is its foremost goal to see that it does. Precise Legal Citations of cases discussed are appended. [Additional funding for this paper was provided by the Aequus Institute, The Atlas Economic Research Foundation, Pierre F. and the Enid Goodrich Foundation, and The Joseph Harrison Jackson Foundation.].