Nat Hentoff Column Praises GOP Platform’s Free Speech Commitment, FIRE’s Victories

Author, music critic, columnist, tireless civil liberties advocate, and FIRE Board of Advisors member Nat Hentoff has penned a new column for the Cato Institute this week after taking notice—as FIRE also did—that the Republican Party has included a commitment to free speech on college campuses as part of its national platform. Hentoff notes:

This clarion call to our most fundamental individual constitutional freedom is a much-needed recognition by the GOP that many colleges and universities have long been dictating what views can and cannot be expressed on campus by individual students and professors.

The rest of his terrific column is devoted to praising FIRE's recent successes defending free speech on campuses around the country, including at the University of Cincinnati, where students, with FIRE's help, defeated a laughably unconstitutional free speech zone policy.

Hentoff also lauds FIRE's publications, including our Guide to Free Speech on Campus, and praises Greg Lukianoff's soon-to-be-published book "Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the end of American Debate."

Toward the end of his column, Hentoff notes that "FIRE never gives up, as I shall continue demonstrating next week." We at FIRE certainly look forward to seeing what he has to say next. Until then, be sure to read this excellent column in full.