Want to Restore America? Bring Free Speech Back

We are losing our country to the Democrats' radical, extremist progressive ideology and their assault on free speech through government censorship of conservative voices on social media, and the draconian regulation of speech on college campuses. We the people must fight back. We must restore America. We must restore free speech and end government-sponsored censorship.

Free speech is indispensable to our freedom. This right is absolutely guaranteed to "we the people" by the First Amendment. It is a right that protects freedom of expression (with narrowly limited exceptions) regardless of the message, ideas, subject matter or content.

Indeed, James Madison considered free speech essential to our constitutional government:

"Our First Amendment freedoms give us the right to think what we like and say what we please. And if we the people are to govern ourselves, we must have these rights, even if they are misused by a minority."

Government Political Censorship and Speech Control

Shockingly, as described by George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley in his recent article regarding the House Judiciary Committee's Report on the government's censorship of Americans' online speech, this fundamental right of free speech "is in free fall ... [due to the] emergence of a type of triumvirate of censorship, an alliance of government [principally the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in the Department of Homeland Security], academic, and media corporations.

"Together they have established the most comprehensive censorship system in the history of this country."

Professor Turley highlights that this triumvirate targets conservative and libertarian sites as the most dangerous sources of disinformation, including social media sites like Reason which publishes conservative legal analysis while ranking the most liberal sites as the most trustworthy for advertisers.

And it is all funded by the federal government through grants from Homeland Security, the Justice Department, the State Department, and other agencies.

As the Committee's Report describes in detail, this censorship reportedly interfered with the 2020 election. Constitutionally protected conservative speech was intentionally suppressed through the federal government's direct coordination with third-party organizations, particularly universities, and social media platforms.

True information posted by Republicans and conservatives, including candidates, was falsely characterized as "misinformation" while leaving false information posted by Democrats and liberals largely unreported and untouched by the censors.

Congress must act immediately to defund this censorship apparatus, including any and all appropriations and grant funding, and enact legislation that expressly prohibits any such type of program, whether operated directly by an agency or through third parties.

University Suppression of Free Speech and Mandate for Ideological Purity

This assault on conservative speech is likewise rampant on college campuses, as universities press racist diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, a cancel culture focused on mandating the woke ideology and censoring any countervailing views. College campuses have been overwhelmed by this ideological orthodoxy and censorship.

The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized our nation's deep commitment to the "transcendent value" of "safeguarding academic freedom" and the "robust exchange of ideas" as "essential" to freedom and "vital" to democracy.

Today, however, universities are mandating the woke, progressive ideology and DEI as dogma; suppressing political debate and academic freedom; establishing strict speech codes; imposing ideological litmus tests for outside speakers; executing punitive actions against students and professors who deviate from the mandated orthodoxy; and discriminating in student admissions and faculty hiring. Almost always the targets are conservative perspectives.

Moreover, this woke ideology is on the attack. As shown by the recent spectacles involving federal court of appeals Judge Stuart Duncan's attempted speech at Stanford Law School, Riley Gaines' speech at San Francisco State University, and Charlie Kirk's speech at the University of California, Davis, angry, violent mobs seek to intimidate, shout down, and even physically threaten conservative speakers.

In short, colleges today have become the antithesis of the once revered diverse marketplace of ideas.

And worse, it is funded in substantial part by the federal government through our tax dollars. It is, in effect, government-sponsored indoctrination, censorship, and discrimination as tens of billions of federal dollars are funneled to colleges through research grants, Pell Grants, recent COVID relief, and other programs.

Congress must end its sponsorship of this onslaught against academic freedom and free speech.

Free speech is a fundamental constitutional right and academic freedom is essential to education. Congress must starve the beast of woke ideology, intolerance, and violence on college campuses by ending federal funding for schools that fail to provide a robust, free, and open marketplace of ideas.

To restore America, it is imperative that Congress act to restore and protect our First Amendment right of free speech by ending all government sponsorship — whether direct or indirect — of any form of censorship. We must restore our founders' vision of freedom and individual rights.

Michael Clancy is a lawyer, member of The Federalist Society and The Heritage Foundation, and former congressional candidate. He provides incisive, analytical commentary on political and constitutional law issues and is a frequent guest on political news programs. Mike is a graduate of The George Washington University Law School and Notre Dame. Twitter: @MikeClancyVA. Read More Mike Clancy — Here.