FIRE on North Carolina

FIRE has issued its first comprehensive survey of a state's public higher education institutions, and the results are not comforting: the report faults 13 of the state's 16 public colleges and universities for having on the books at least one policy"that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech." The state legislature seems to be entirely asleep on this matter.

The best speech code clearly belongs to North Carolina-Greensboro, whose speech code outlaws statements suggesting"disrespect for persons." (Interpreted literally, the code would seem to mean that, in class, a student couldn't question the integrity of historical actors who are still alive.) The school is also going after two students for protesting the school's"free speech zones." The students' offense? They protested outside the free speech zone.

But, as Sandi Cooper would say, we ought not concern ourselves with such matters. The faculty has more important items to protest than university policies restricting speech. Let the students hire a lawyer so the courts can handle the issue!

(FIRE's Robert Shibley has a great post in response to Cooper's bizarre argument.)

On another type of free speech issue--an amazing project being undertaken by some University of Montana journalism students, who are trying to assemble evidence to persuade Governor Brian Schweitzer to posthumously pardon Montanans tried and convicted under the WWI Sedition Act. Montana had an unusually aggressive US attorney during much of the war, and abuse of the act was more pronounced there than in just about any state other than New York.