The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, an increasingly prominent free-speech organization, has long been known as a fierce opponent of campus political correctness. Since its founding in 1999, it has been celebrated for defending conservatives and other dissidents from the prevailing liberal culture at America’s universities.
So when the group announced a lawsuit this month challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to deport noncitizen students who expressed pro-Palestinian views, some admirers were dismayed.
“In my lifetime,” one X user, Robert McLaws, wrote, “you went from supporting Republicans who were persecuted in colleges to supporting terrorist sympathizers who are guests of this country and whose presence is not constitutionally protected. Shameful.”
The group, long a scourge of university administrators, also finds itself working to help protect schools it has criticized in the past from new threats. When FIRE filed a brief in support of Harvard’s lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s cuts in research funds, the group noted its own record as “a leading critic of Harvard’s inconsistent and insufficient protection of free speech and academic freedom.”
These are topsy-turvy times for the cause of free speech. In recent years, the American Civil Liberties Union has faced internal debates over when to take cases that conflict with its increasing progressive advocacy on issues like immigration, racial justice and transgender rights. Now, many conservatives who rallied under the banner of free speech are championing efforts that crack down on it.
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The post A Critic of Universities Is Rallying to Defend Them in the Trump Era appeared first on New York Times.
