Emory University School of Law

In Defense of the Emory Law Journal

BY JOHN K. WILSON This week, there was what Jonathan Turley called a “major controversy brewing over free speech and censorship at Emory Law Journal.” Robert George argued, “It’s hard to think of a stupider, more self-defeating idea than imposing political litmus tests on articles submitted to major law reviews. But that’s what the Emory…

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Is Academic Freedom Under Siege?

BY HANK REICHMAN On December 10, I had the pleasure of participating in a fantastic and timely program in the University of California (UC) National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement’s 2021 “Speech Spotlight Live” series.  “Is Academic Freedom Under Siege?” featured Sigal Ben-Porath, Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and author of…

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black chalkboard with the word RACISM and a red eraser beginning to erase the lower right corner of the letter M

Faculty Senates across the Country Pass Resolutions Protecting Academic Freedom

BY CAROLYN BETENSKY An article in today’s edition of Inside Higher Ed covered a significant initiative that is picking up steam on campuses across the country.  In response to laws passed or proposed by Republican-dominated state legislatures and boards of trustees that ban the teaching of “divisive” materials on race, racism, and gender at state…

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Florida’s and China’s Viewpoint Monitoring Laws

BY THOMAS A. BRESLIN Republican Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies have used conflict-of-interest policies meant to keep China from poaching American intellectual property to muzzle Florida’s public college and university professors. So doing, they’ve managed to deny the public access to the expertise of public university and college faculty members, threatened public health, put…

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Freedom and Responsibility

BY HANK REICHMAN With freedom comes responsibility.  That old maxim is frequently heard in controversies involving academic freedom.  Too often it is taken simply to suggest that such freedom carries with it the responsibility to limit the degree to which freedom is exercised.  Don’t rock the boat, we have been warned, if we don’t want…

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Welcome to Rogues’ Gallery University

BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday’s launch of a new “university,” the so-called University of Austin (or UATX; their own acronym, which looks more like a listing on the stock exchange), garnered widespread ridicule on academic social media.  University of Rhode Island historian Erik Loomis no doubt spoke for many when he tweeted, “Honestly, making fun of…

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Gainesville, We Have a Problem

BY STEVEN LUBET Three University of Florida political science professors have sued the university trustees and several officials for violations of the First Amendment and academic freedom, alleging that they had been prevented from “testifying on behalf of voting-rights groups in a lawsuit challenging Florida’s Senate Bill 90 (‘SB 90’).”  In what appeared to be…

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small red light on a metal base with the word DANGER above it

Academic Freedom: Dangers and Distractions

POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN On November 1, Brian Soucek, Professor of Law and Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of California at Davis, spoke as part of the UC Davis Forums on the Public University and the Social Good on “Academic Freedom: Dangers and Distractions.”  Professor Soucek is the outgoing chair of the University of California’s…

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