by Emily Guidry
April 19, 2007
Thanks for your continued support, David! Torch readers can read FIRE’s own responses to Gould’s article in earlier posts this week by Chris, Samantha, and two from Robert.I will believe that FIRE exaggerates the prevalence of speech codes the day that a federal judge upholds as lawful a code that FIRE labels ‘red’ in the Spotlight database. We can argue about legal interpretations all day long, but federal judges make the ultimate decision, and so far FIRE hasn’t gotten one wrong yet. Since 2003 alone, “red” rated speech codes at Shippensburg University, Texas Tech, and Temple have been struck down by federal courts. Many other universities have agreed to rewrite their codes when faced with a lawsuit, including Penn State, Georgia Tech, and SUNY Brockport. And the codes at these schools are not unique. They are representative of the codes at hundreds of other universities. Until FIRE’s record drops below 100%, I think I’ll trust FIRE’s ratings.