Any fair analysis of our work makes clear that FIRE is truly nonpartisan.
Membership
We’re here to defend the free speech rights of all Americans.
![scales of justice in a courtroom](/sites/default/files/styles/500x300/public/2019/04/02172246/courtroom-scales-justice-judge-court.jpg.webp?itok=yFMg3T9U)
In our two decades of First Amendment advocacy, we have zealously worked on behalf of individuals from a broad swath of American society who are representative of our nation’s remarkable social, political, religious, and cultural diversity. Here are just a few examples.
We’ve defended the right to criticize politicians and to support politicians — regardless of party.
- We defended the rights of students to campaign for Bernie Sanders.
- We defended a professor who was fired for criticizing Mike Pence.
- We defended the rights of students to campaign for Glenn Youngkin.
- We defended faculty punished for criticizing Kamala Harris.
We’ve defended the right to express pro-choice ideas and we’ve defended the right to speak up about being pro-life.
- We defended a pro-choice law student who was investigated for sharing his opinions in a private group chat.
- We fought a campus policy that bans faculty from “promot[ing] or advocat[ing] in favor of abortion.”
- We defended pro-life student groups who were cut off from funding by the student government.
- We defended the rights of students to post pro-life flyers.
We’ve defended the rights of those on both sides of the Israeli-Palestian debate.
- We defended a Students Supporting Israel group denied recognition and funding by the student government.
- We defended a professor who was relegated to remote teaching after making anti-Hamas remarks to protestors.
- We defended a Students for Justice in Palestine group after it was banned by a university.
- We fought for a Law Students for Justice in Palestine group’s right to criticize Zionists.
We often find ourselves with cases representing both sides of hot button issues, simultaneously!
We have defended the rights of athletes kneeling during the national anthem and students disciplined for distributing American flags; an animal rights advocate and a hunting club; student clubs hosting speakers on both the left and right; and so much more.
These are just a few examples of the cases that FIRE has taken on. You can get a greater sense of the breadth of our work, and our sincere nonpartisanship, by checking out our case archives.