What is free speech? And why should we care? Today there’s a great deal of confusion, which is partly why the campaigns against free speech are so successful.
We have all witnessed the sad spectacle of college students preventing individuals from exercising their right to free speech by disrupting debates, physically blocking audiences from attending public speeches and demanding “safe spaces” and “speech codes” to shield them from “offensive” ideas.
Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa against Salman Rushdie in 1989, Islamic totalitarians have been threatening and killing “offensive” “blasphemers” for the “crime” of exercising their right to free speech. But instead of standing up for and protecting the individual’s right to free speech, our leaders and intellectuals have been busy appeasing those who demand religion-based censorship and blaming the victims for being too provocative.
On July 20, 2016, Daniel Pryor, communications associate at Students for Liberty, wrote a favorable review of Defending Free Speech over at the Students for Liberty blog.
In 2014, ARI introduced the summer legal fellowship, a one-of-a-kind internship program that allows law students to work with ARI’s director of Legal Studies Steve Simpson, an experienced constitutional lawyer who worked for many years for the Institute for Justice. This summer’s legal fellow is Agustina Vergara Cid, a law student at Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in Córdoba, Argentina, and a former ARI summer intern.
“[S]o long as you have free speech, protect it,” Ayn Rand said. “This is the life-and-death issue in this country . . .” Yet today that precious freedom is under siege.
Today, July 1, The Federalist published an op-ed by Steve Simpson, in which he argues that the investigations of ExxonMobil for allegedly committing “fraud” in connection with the global warming debate is nothing but an outrageous attempt to censor those who happen to disagree with the government.
On June 1 and June 2, 2016, Yaron Brook, Steve Simpson and Tara Smith attended the 2016 Foundations of a Free Society Conference at Clemson University, hosted by the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism.
On June 1 and 2, 2016, Yaron Brook, Steve Simpson and Tara Smith will give presentations at the 2016 Foundations of a Free Society Conference, hosted by the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism (CISC). CISC describes the conference as the largest of its kind in the Southeast, with its attendees reaching and influencing tens of thousands of students and members of the general public each year through teaching and research. Taking part in conferences like this one is an important part of how ARI works to promote Ayn Rand’s revolutionary philosophy.
