Free Speech & Peace

While the banning of books may seem more suited for the plot of 'Fahrenheit 451,' the practice is still alive and well across classrooms in the United States. Banned Books Week seeks to bring awareness to censored books, promotes the protection of First Amendment freedoms, and highlights the value of storytelling.

Amid growing divisiveness in our culture, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Center for American Progress, and several other organizations have joined together to create “Communities Overcoming Extremism (COE): The After Charlottesville Project,” a national initiative to explore how to address intolerance. As part of the initiative, COE will hold two summits for public and private sector […]

June 15, 2018, Arlington, VA – Last week news broke the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) had seized New York Times reporter Ali Watkins’ email and phone records. Though a series of activities have forecast the possibility of such an action, this marks the first known instance under the current administration. In April, the administration […]

A free press is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, but no right is truly guaranteed. Despite the United States’ historic role as a global champion of free speech, the nation often receives less-than-stellar marks when it comes to protecting the press (the United States is ranked only 45th out of 180 countries in a report on […]

Student expression—their ability to protest, assemble, or even speak—is in peril in Arizona, where a bill passed yesterday would grant universities the ability to gravely curtail students’ rights on campus. The bill, heavily influenced by the Goldwater Institute, explicitly says: “A university or community college may restrict a student’s right to speak, including verbal speech, […]

A free press is a cornerstone of an open society. It holds the powerful accountable and invites robust engagement on critical issues. Today we see an environment in which the public is losing confidence not just in the reliability of news outlets but potentially in the idea of a free press. Though research suggests this […]

Stand Together Trust is pleased to announce that Casey Mattox, esq., has joined the organization as a senior fellow focusing on toleration and free speech.

Last week, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) unanimously voted to censure the University of Missouri for how it handled the firing of Melissa Click. Click, formerly a communications professor at the University of Missouri, received national attention when she was recorded asking for “muscle” to prevent a student journalist from covering a campus […]

In response to the arrest of an Illinois man who burned a flag earlier this month, David Mercer examines how many flag burning laws still exist. According to his article in The Associated Press, at least 40 states still have laws banning flag burning. However, U.S. Supreme Court cases in 1989 and 1990 established that burning […]

Jay Heinrichs, professor of rhetoric at Middlebury College, explains how everyone can have a civil conversation, even when they disagree with one another.