HUMAN RIGHTS
Following the certification of new rules regulating discussion of LGBTQ+ topics within the Texas Tech University system, lawyers at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) argue that the new rules would violate the first amendment rights of students and faculty.
From Graham Piro, with the FIRE Legal Fund: “The Texas Tech memo unconstitutionally singles out specific viewpoints on these topics, implying that faculty members must adhere to the state’s line on these issues–and that dissenters face punishment.”
“On paper, these measures may sound reasonable to many people,” Piro said in a phone interview on Wednesday, “but they do not comply with the first amendment.”
Founded in 1999, FIRE was originally assembled to target infringements of free speech on college campuses.
Like many free speech absolutists, this means coming to the defense of both sides of the diversity, equity, and inclusion debate currently raging in the halls of power.
“FIRE pushes back on any restriction of speech or compulsion of speech,” says Piro, “So, [they] have long been critical of measures like mandatory diversity statements on applications for hiring or tenure.
“If you require faculty members to restrict what they teach in this way, they are having to pledge fealty to these politicized definitions, which in reality are hotly contested…you impose this obligation on future faculty members.”
Setting Precedents
Piro noted this new level of regulation could be used against those who are in favor of it today.
“This may be something in positions of power now think is the right move, because it’s the idea they want…but in reality we live in a democracy, and eventually, the other side says ‘We have the power to pick and choose.’
“That’s what happens when you abandon the First Amendment standpoint of neutrality.”
According to Piro, state-level measures Florida is attempting to implement would impose similar regulations on classroom instructors.
Earlier this year, the so-called “Stop WOKE Act” was signed into law, but Piro said FIRE has been successful in challenging the law, which currently is awaiting further legal review.
That act aims to restrict discussion of gender studies, the history of racism and slavery, and other topics considered ideological from kindergarten up to post-graduate studies.
The War Against Political Correctness
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
— First Amendment of the United States Constitution
As a right guaranteed to anyone within the United States under the Constitution, freedom of speech has long been considered a hallmark of any liberal democracy.
FIRE is a non-partisan organization; but in matters of free speech, the charges of being overtly progressive or overtly conservative have followed since its founding.
In 2023, Cathy Young, fellow at the conservative Cato institute, wrote:
“Because of its opposition to students and faculty being sanctioned for running afoul of “political correctness”—and the funding it has received from conservative organizations and donors—FIRE has been sometimes stereotyped as a right-wing group overhyping the threat to free speech from campus progressives.
“But in fact, while FIRE has handled many cases involving speech suppression in the name of progressive values, it is that rare group which actually means it when it claims to be nonpartisan.”
In other words, the campaign against political correctness has taken on a new turn: the same policies enforcing political correctness are now wielded by those who had initially opposed them; saying that they would stifle conservative voices in the classroom.
In 2019, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 18 following a series of controversial campus appearances:
“In 2017, for example, Texas A&M University was threatened with a lawsuit after it canceled a rally with white nationalist Richard Spencer. Later that year, Texas Southern University came under fire from lawmakers after it halted a speech by Cain when protesters disrupted it.
“Such events sparked a provision in SB 18 that would prohibit universities from considering “any anticipated controversy related to the event” when approving guest speakers on campus.”
