Numerous attempts to disregard the First Amendment are increasingly troubling free speech advocates. The latest examples:
Campus Reform describes these incidents:
“Multiple professors at Washington State University have explicitly told students their grades will suffer if they use terms such as ‘illegal alien,’ ‘male,’ and ‘female’ …According to the syllabus for [a professor’s] ‘Women & Popular Culture’ class, students risk a failing grade if they use any common descriptors that [the professor] considers ‘oppressive and hateful language.’
“The punishment for repeatedly using the banned words, [the professor] warns, includes ‘but [is] not limited to removal from the class without attendance or participation points, failure of the assignment, and— in extreme cases— failure for the semester.’
That’s not the only WSU implementing such policies. The ‘Introduction to Comparative Ethnic Studies’ course “will see their grades suffer if they use the term ‘illegal alien’ in their assigned writing…Several other WSU professors require their students to ‘acknowledge that racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and other institutionalized forms of oppression exist’ or that ‘we do not live in a post-racial world.’
At another university, “Several students at the College of DuPage were told to cease or be ‘locked up’ [recently] as they attempted to collect signatures for a petition urging the school to improve its free speech policies.”
The Daily Caller reports that “20 climate scientists are asking President Barack Obama to prosecute people who disagree with them on the science behind man-made global warming.
“Scientists from several universities and research centers even asked Obama to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) to prosecute groups that ‘have knowingly deceived the American people about the risks of climate change, as a means to forestall America’s response to climate change.’But these riled up academics aren’t the first to suggest using RICO to go after global warming skeptics. The idea was first put forward by Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse… ‘We strongly endorse Senator Whitehouse’s call for a RICO investigation,” the scientists wrote to Obama…’
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“This year has been a trying one for global warming skeptics. Earlier this year, Democratic lawmakers began an investigation into scientists who disagreed with the White House’s stance on global warming. Many of these skeptical scientists were often cited by those critical of regulations to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Arizona Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva went after universities employing these researchers, which resulted in one expert being forced to get out of the field of climate research altogether.”
Ross Kminsky, writing for The Federalist has analyzed the issue.
“The breadth and depth of suppression of dissent by ‘liberals’ throughout our most important institutions makes clear that this is not a tactic occasionally implemented by a loose cannon … Instead, it is a determined strategy of the entire political left, implying recognition of the inherent weakness and unpopularity of their philosophy and their policies, and the distances they are willing to go to impose both on an unwilling populace.
“The most high-profile recent case involves Lois Lerner and the IRS Office of Exempt Organizations using their power to delay and deny 501(c)(4) status to dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Tea Party and other conservative-leaning organizations…The IRS was encouraged in their unethical (and almost certainly illegal) behavior by ‘liberal’ politicians such as Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Carl Levin (D-MI)…
“The same mindset pervaded the boneheaded recent effort by the FCC to put ‘monitors’ in newsrooms across the country …Neither the Fairness Doctrine nor the proposed CIN are actually intended to increase ‘fairness’; they are designed to suppress points of view which dissent with government, especially a left-of-center government…
“Reporters were relatively quiet when they learned that Attorney General Eric Holder had targeted Fox News reporter James Rosen as a possible criminal co-conspirator (and lied about it to Congress), because Fox is perceived as right-of-center, but found their voices when the liberal Associated Press had their records subpoenaed by the Department of Justice. These despicable acts by the DOJ, far from being actual investigation, were simply acts of suppression…
“But the news media are as much part of the Silencer class as part of the Silenced. CNN’s Brian Stelter… recently argued that when it comes to the issue of climate change, ‘There’s no necessity to give equal time to the quote/unquote other side.’ … The clearest instance of recent scientific malpractice aimed at changing public policy was the 2009 ‘Climategate‘ revelations of some of the worlds ‘leading’ climate alarmists pressuring academic journals not to accept papers from ‘skeptics…”