PROGRESSIVE POLICIES HAVE A CHILLING EFFECT ON FREE INQUIRY

THE ISSUE

The Campus Free Speech Crisis is Well-Documented

Free speech is protected by the First Amendment. On college campuses, free speech is key to healthy debate and free inquiry. College campuses have cracked down on students’ and professors’ speech, creating a diminished intellectual atmosphere.

A 2024 Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) survey of more than 55,000 undergraduates studying at 254 colleges found that 69% of students are somewhat or very uncomfortable “publicly disagreeing with a professor about a controversial political topic.”

Only 37% acknowledged it is never acceptable to shout down a speaker to “prevent them from speaking on campus.”

FIRE’s database includes more than 1,100 incidents in which their advocacy or litigation defended students and faculty who were facing attacks on free inquiry.

While the Trump Administration raised the alarm about free inquiry on college campuses and implemented policies designed to ensure diverse viewpoints were protected, many were undone by the Biden-Harris Administration.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROTECTED FREE INQUIRY

Trump Executive Order on Campus Free Inquiry

On March 21, 2019, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 13864 to ensure colleges and universities that receive federal research funding protect free speech on their campuses.

The order directed 12 federal agencies that fund postsecondary education to add free speech requirements to their grants.

This led the Department of Education (ED) to issue the “Religious Liberty and Free Inquiry” rule, mandating that public institutions comply with the First Amendment and that private institutions comply with their stated free speech policies to remain eligible for federal research funding. The regulation also required public institutions to make benefits and privileges afforded to student groups available to all groups on equal terms, including those with a religious mission.

ED also established a Free Speech Hotline in 2020 so students and faculty would have a mechanism to report violations.

The Trump Administration’s Title IX Rules Protected Students’ Due Process and Free Speech Rights

On May 6, 2020, the Trump Administration finalized new Title IX regulations that strengthened due process protections for students accused of sexual misconduct.

• The regulations included provisions to ensure fair sexual misconduct investigations, including guaranteeing the accused an in-person hearing, access to the evidence against him or her, and the opportunity to question witnesses.
• The Title IX reforms also required universities to use the Supreme Court’s definition of harassment to ensure that protected speech could not be investigated under overly broad policies about “offensive” speech.

These changes aimed to end unjust proceedings on college campuses while ensuring that colleges investigate all allegations of sexual misconduct.

THE BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION PRIORITIZES IDEOLOGICAL CONFORMITY

The Biden-Harris Administration Reversed Commonsense First Amendment Protections

• The Biden-Harris Administration immediately shut down the Free Speech Hotline, even though it had received more than two dozen complaints supported by hundreds of pages of documentation.

• Last year, ED moved to rescind the equal treatment guarantee for student groups with a religious mission established by the Trump Administration’s free inquiry rule.

The Biden-Harris Administration Weaponized Title IX

• The Biden-Harris Administration’s rewrite of Title IX is best known for redefining “sex” to include gender identity, which will open female sports and intimate facilities to boys and men. But it has also created a weapon that will be used by woke activists and administrators to chill campus speech. By broadening the definition of harassment and extending Title IX protections to discrimination based on “gender identity” and “sex characteristics,” the regulation will require schools to open Title IX investigations when a student claims someone used the wrong pronoun. The consequence will be more self-censorship and the further decline of the campus intellectual climate.

• The new Title IX regulation also rolls back many of the due process guarantees established by the Trump Administration, time-honored principles of procedural fairness meant to facilitate truth-seeking. For example, schools are allowed to reinstitute single investigator models and use a weaker “preponderance-of-the-evidence” standard when they investigate allegations of sexual misconduct. This change exposes students to untrue allegations triggering serious investigations that can harm their reputation.

• Federal courts have blocked implementation of the Biden-Harris Title IX rewrite in 26 states. This will lead to disjointed and uneven enforcement of its provisions, imperiling campus free speech and students’ due process rights, until the Supreme Court rules or a new administration rescinds the regulation.

THE TAKEAWAY

America First vs. America Last: A Stark Contrast in Campus Free Inquiry

The Trump Administration made significant strides in defending and promoting free speech on college campuses. Through executive orders, regulations, and public statements, President Trump emphasized the importance of protecting diverse viewpoints, ensuring due process, and maintaining balanced discourse in educational institutions. These efforts embodied an “America First” approach, prioritizing adherence to the Constitution and free thought essential to our national culture. As he forcefully stated in a 2019 address, “We reject oppressive speech codes, censorship, political correctness, and every other attempt by the hard left to stop people from challenging ridiculous and dangerous ideas.”

In stark contrast, the Biden-Harris Administration’s policies have rolled back these protections, prioritizing ideological conformity over free inquiry. By dismantling the safeguards put in place to protect students’ rights and broadening regulations in ways that chill speech, the current administration’s approach represents an “America Last” strategy—one that undermines the robust exchange of ideas and threatens the intellectual diversity that is foundational to higher education in America.