Table of Contents
FIRE Summer Intern in California's 'Daily Journal'
The Los Angeles Daily Journal recently published a piece written by 2006 FIRE Summer Intern Michael Oberst. He discusses the 9th Circuit case Harper v. Poway Unified School District, in which a high school student was punished for wearing a shirt that expressed anti-homosexual sentiment. The court decided in favor of the school district, and in response Michael writes:
The Harper decision paves the way for blatant viewpoint discrimination in high schools across the nation, whenever the censored message touches upon issues that minorities hold dear. What members of the majority fail to understand is that, in the long run, members of historically unpopular or underprivileged minority groups have achieved legal equality in our society not by suppressing free speech but by vigorously exercising it. The 9th Circuit is doing these groups, and all of us, no favors.
Recent Articles
Get the latest free speech news and analysis from FIRE.
FIRE answers your questions
Podcast
Changes at the Pentagon, Charlie Kirk and cancel
culture, free speech and misinformation, globalized censorship,
Indiana University, how to support...
Texas runs afoul of the First Amendment with new limits on faculty course materials
The Texas Tech University System ordered its five member-universities to comb through faculty materials to root out any of the state’s disfavored viewpoints.
Free speech advocates rally to support FIRE’s defense of First Amendment protections for drag shows
Drag shows are inherently expressive and protected under the First Amendment.
FIRE statement on Trump demand for social media history of foreign tourists
Requiring temporary visitors here for a vacation or business to surrender five years of their social media to the U.S. will send the message that the American commitment to free speech is pretense, not practice.