Week in Review: A Landmark Anniversary for Free Speech
One year ago this week, the Supreme Court restored the First Amendment rights of millions of public-sector workers, ruling in Janus v. AFSCME that governments can’t force their employees to pay fees to a union just to keep their jobs. That decision has already had a big impact: a lot of money that otherwise would have gone toward unions’ political advocacy—perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars in the past year alone—is instead going into the pockets of workers who are free
Week in Review: States Should Take the Lead in Protecting Free Speech on Campus
Nowhere in the United States do individuals struggle more to listen and be heard than on college campuses. As Goldwater Institute Senior Fellow Jonathan Butcher explains this week in the Daily Caller, Alabama lawmakers seem to agree with this: Recently, Governor Kay Ivey signed bipartisan legislation to protect free speech at public universities. Now, he writes, other states should follow suit and move forward with protecting speech on college campuses. “If university adminis
States Should Take the Lead in Protecting Free Speech on Campus
Nowhere in the U.S. do individuals struggle more to listen and be heard than on college campuses. Alabama lawmakers appear to agree. Earlier this month, Gov. Kay Ivey signed bipartisan legislation to protect free speech at public universities. Threats to free expression exist at institutions of higher education around the country, and Alabama is no exception. Young America’s Foundation and the Alliance Defending Freedom wrote the University of Alabama a letter in 2017 decryin
Week in Review – Our Post-Janus Lawsuit: Free Speech Applies to Everyone
The First Amendment protects our freedom to speak—as well as our freedom not to speak. When we’re forced to support causes with which we disagree, our free-speech rights are undermined. All Americans should enjoy the freedom of speech, and that’s why the Goldwater Institute is fighting for those rights in court. In last year’s Janus decision, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that public employees should not have to join and pay dues to a union, since unions used those funds for
Week in Review: Alabama Protects Free Speech on Campus
Alabama has enacted a new law to protect free speech on campus, adding protections to the expressive rights of students, faculty, and other officials at the state’s colleges. Under Alabama’s law, which Governor Kay Iveysigned on Thursday,public institutions must consider sanctions for anyone in the campus community that violates someone else’s expressive activity; abolish so-called “free-speech zones” that limit speech to isolated areas of campus; and require university trust
Alabama’s Campus Free Speech Firestorm Leads to Legislative Action
Scott Morris says he was always just “one infuriated administrator away” from losing his job. Morris, advisor to the Flor-Ala, the University of North Alabama’s (UNA) student newspaper, helped student journalists complete a records request last year and found his infuriated college official. As the Flor-Ala saga unfolds, Alabama lawmakers have sent Gov. Kay Ivey a proposal to protect free speech on campus that adds protections to the expressive rights of students, faculty, an
