Fired for Speaking Out
Faculty Story
After public outrage, Coastal Carolina University reinstates theater professor Steven Earnest, who criticized student protestors.
At FIRE, we champion your right to free expression
On campus and off, defending expressive rights is critical to ensuring an America where you feel safe to speak freely.
Defending Your Rights
FIRE defends and sustains the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought — the essential qualities of liberty — and carries out this mission through several core services.
Individual Rights Advocacy
Helping You
FIRE’s signature, core defense program provides free, non-legal assistance to individuals whose fundamental civil liberties are violated.
Legal Support
In the Courts
FIRE strategically litigates in courts nationwide to vindicate the First Amendment and due process rights of everyday Americans.
Reforming College Policies
Fixing Higher Ed
FIRE’s College Policy Reform team works to proactively and systematically challenge campus policies that violate the free speech rights of students and faculty.
Legislative Policy Reform
Changing Laws
FIRE defends your individual rights at the state and federal level by advocating for rights-protective legislation and against bills that would abridge those rights.
Campus Rights Advocacy
Higher Education
Are you a college student or faculty member punished or investigated for something you posted on social media? Denied recognition of your student group? Is your student publication being threatened? Are you facing non-renewal or loss of tenure because of your views? FIRE’s Campus Rights Advocacy is here to help.
Our Issues
FIRE defends and promotes the individual rights of all Americans in our courtrooms, on our campuses, and in our culture.
Free Speech
Freedom of speech is a human right and a fundamental American freedom.
Academic Freedom
Educators on college and university campuses must be free to ask tough questions and facilitate learning without the threat of institutional censorship.
Due Process
Due process demands that authorities provide fair, unbiased, and equitable procedures when determining a person’s guilt or innocence.
Press Freedom
Freedom of the press protects the ability of journalists and news media to publish information free from official censorship.
Freedom of Assembly
Freedom of assembly is the right of individuals to come together to express shared ideas, and is guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Religious Liberty
Religious liberty is the right to follow the faith of your choice — or to follow no faith at all.
Freedom of Conscience
Freedom of conscience means the right to arrive at one’s private beliefs without being coerced into an artificial unity by those who wield power over us.
Title IX
The government’s efforts to fight discrimination on campus in the name of Title IX have sometimes overstepped the bounds of the Constitution.
FIRE’s First Amendment Freedom Operation
Censoring public comments. Compelling speech. Suing people into silence. Sometimes it feels like no words are safe from suppression and coercion. FIRE’s First Amendment Freedom Operation proves that violating First Amendment rights has consequences. We take on cases of everyday people who run afoul of government officials just for speaking their minds. And we’re determined to emerge victorious, knowing a win for our clients is a win for all Americans.
Can FIRE Help Me?
FIRE helps people whose expressive rights have been violated — and those violations take a lot of forms. If you think your rights have been violated, tell us about it. Our team will review your case to see how we can help. It’s totally confidential and there’s never a cost to you.
Without the help and leadership of FIRE, I am certain that I would have been forced out of my career of over 25 years.
Faculty Legal Defense Fund
The Faculty Legal Defense Fund offers “first responder” assistance to protect the expressive and academic freedom rights of faculty at public colleges and universities. If you face censorship or retaliation for your instruction or scholarship, or for your speech on issues of public concern as a private citizen, then FLDF may be able to help.
Student Press Freedom Initiative
Are you a student journalist? FIRE has your back. Our Student Press Freedom Initiative (SPFI) defends free press on campus by advocating for the rights of student journalists across the country.
FIRE filed a lawsuit against the university to protect student press freedoms for Jared, The Indian Leader, and student journalists around the country.
Student journalist SUES his university, and WINS!
Defending Student Rights
The president of Haskell Indian Nations University issued an unconstitutional directive to student journalist Jared Nally, editor-in-chief of the award-winning student newspaper, The Indian Leader, that formally forbade Jared from engaging in protected journalistic activities. The president also directed Jared to start showing university administrators the “highest respect” — or else!
FIRE’s 10 common-sense reforms for colleges and universities
America’s colleges and universities have been engines of discovery and knowledge, but many institutions have strayed from their core missions. As colleges and universities look to regain trust, their leaders should recommit to their institutions’ core values. They can start with these 10 common-sense reforms.
690+
Since 1999, FIRE has amassed more than 690 victories defending student and faculty rights on more than 300 campuses nationwide.
33
In 2024, FIRE actively litigated 33 cases.
2,200
In 2024, FIRE vetted nearly 2,200 case submissions involving individuals and groups who said their rights were threatened.
1m
FIRE regularly reaches an audience of more than 1,000,000 email subscribers and social media followers.
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