Image credit: Maytham Al-Zayer / The Daily Northwestern under Fair Use. Caption / alt text: Flexing the First Amendment with the ‘free speech ball’ provided by Young Americans for Liberty at Northwestern University.

Academe, Heal Thyself: Reflections on the Free Speech Executive Order Discussion at ACRL

By: guest contributor Sarah Hartman-Caverly – The true threats to intellectual freedom on college and university campuses cannot be solved by outside intervention – most especially not by state intervention. In this post, Hartman-Caverly extends criticism of the recent Executive Order on free inquiry by challenging its emphasis on learner data tracking, and questions whether intellectual freedom can meaningfully exist without intellectual privacy.

District of Columbia Circuit Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh

Where does Kavanaugh stand on privacy, net neutrality, 1st Amendment?

Like a good proportion of the country, I have been doing my best to catch bits and pieces of the Senate hearings regarding the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee to the US Supreme Court. When I sat down to write this blog I wondered, what impact might Kavanaugh’s confirmation have on intellectual freedom issues?

A CBP Officer processes an incoming passenger at the Newark International Airport. Photo by James Tourtellotte https://www.flickr.com/photos/cbpphotos/8468732156/in/photostream/

Passport Please

On arrival to Texas from Paris on Feb. 22, 2017, en route to Texas A&M University, where he was an invited guest, Dr. Rousso was held for 11 hours; and though eventually released, through the intercession of Texas A&M University’s president and a law professor, his experience is telling of where we are headed as people and a nation. In fact, it is telling of where we have arrived, now, in this moment.