Free Speech
FIRE’s Legislative and Policy Program promotes legislation and policy that protects students’ and faculty’s right to freedom of speech, while combating measures that would restrict the exercise of that crucial right.
Projects
- Departments of Education and Justice: National Requirement for Unconstitutional Speech Codes
- Wisconsin: Bill to Forbid Professors from Working with Journalism Organization
- Nationwide: Password Protection Acts
- U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
- Virginia: Bill Would Eliminate Unconstitutional ‘Free Speech Zones’
- Frequently Asked Questions: The Campus Free Expression (CAFE) Act
Due Process
FIRE supports legislation that promotes fair and reliable non-academic campus disciplinary hearings. We work with law and policy makers to defeat measures that would further undermine fundamental fairness and to promote those that ensure that the campus judiciary provides meaningful due process protections to students accused of infractions.
Projects
- U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights April 4, 2011, Guidance Letter Reduces Due Process Protections
- National: Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization
- University of North Carolina System: Law Guaranteeing Right to Counsel
- Virginia Right to Counsel Bill
Religious Liberty
Religious liberty is one of the essential qualities of individual liberty and dignity. That is why FIRE supports legislation that ensures that students of faith have the same rights to campus resources as other students. FIRE opposes policies that would prohibit students’ from forming belief-based organizations that require their members and leaders to adhere to the organization’s beliefs and promotes policies that promote diversity through pluralism.
Follow FIRE