Category «Free Speech»

Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research, Public Health and the Rule of Law – Part 9

This article is the ninth in a series by Sabrina I. Pacifici focused on the Trump administration’s unrelenting policy of attacking science, healthcare, public health, and the rule of law. The cornerstone of this series are topical highlights on hundreds of anti-government actions conducted by this administration. The greater goal of the series is to identify the consequences of these actions to shatter the health and welfare of our nation – terms broadly used to encompass our nation’s democracy. Together these articles form an actionable pathfinder to identify what must be restored or recreated and relaunched, when we commence the hard work of rebuilding our government.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Health, Healthcare, KM, Leadership, Legal Research, Medical Research, United States Law

Hold Fast, Harvard

Since 2025 the Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has engaged in battles with major American institutions of higher education and research. Using the Trump administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, McMahon demands strict adherence to “educational principles” that include elimination of ‘DEI’ programs to quality for ‘preferential federal funding.’ In the case of Harvard University, this funding is on the order of $2.2 billion annually. Lawyer Kyle K. Courtney unravels the litigation at the heart of Harvard’s effort to preserve academic freedom and deny the administration another huge payoff with no transparency as to where the exortion money actually ends up.

Subjects: Economy, Education, Financial System, Free Speech, Healthcare, Legal Research, Medical Research, United States Law

The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research, Public Health, and the Rule of Law – Part 6

As we approach January 20, 2026, the one year mark of the second Trump administration, Americans are witnessing the exercise of vast, often illegal and unconstrained presidential powers, unprecedented in our history. The impact of these powers, within our government, the private sector, and around the globe, continue to resonate. Part 6 of this series gives special attention to how operationalizing the full scope of actions outlined in the “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” has impacted the lives of ordinary Americans, regardless of where they live, with which party they may be affiliated, their age, ethnicity or gender. Consistent with the previous five parts of Sabrina I. Pacifici’s series, this article examines only one month, December 2025, of the Trump administration’s war every aspect of our democracy.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Education, Energy, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Health, Healthcare, Legal Research, United States Law

The Trump Administration’s Continued War Against Science, Research, Public Health, and the Rule of Law – Part 4

This the fourth in a series by Sabrina I. Pacifici on the Trump administration’s relentless attacks against science, medicine and public health, government sponsored data collection and reporting, climate science, and censorship of government documents and federally funded academic research and scholarship. Our country continues to face daily attacks on our civil liberties, access to accurate, actionable and science based medical and health information, broadening censorship of government information, and the dismantling of our non partisan federal workforce. These attacks have bypassed laws and regulations that exist to ensure equality, justice, the rule of law and the safeguarding of civil liberties. These dangerous cracks in the pillars of US democracy have shattered long agreed upon norms that have until January 20, 2025 defined how the institutions and procedures of our three co-equal branches of government, the legislative, executive, and judicial branches sustain democracy. In the month of October alone, our government and the economy, public health and safety, our legal system, science and research, food and nutrition programs, public health and critical vaccine programs, have sustained irrevocable blows by the Trump administration.

Subjects: Archives, Big Data, Civil Liberties, Economy, Education, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Healthcare, Leadership, Legal Research, Medical Research

The U.S. as an Authoritarian State: Danger to the Global Rule of Law

Donald J. Trump’s second term as President of the United States has stunned the world. As Catherine Morris documents, commentators increasingly say the U.S. has now crossed the Rubicon into authoritarian territory. Morris addresses the impact on the legal system, legal education, and lawyers, in the United States and in Canada.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Human Rights, Legal Research, United States Law

“A republic, if you can keep it” – but can the US keep it? How Trump is dismantling democracy

Christina Pagel has mapped out 69 actions that President Trump has taken in the last twelve weeks to undermine democracy, undermine the rule of law, attack enemies, suppress dissent and control information.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Legal Research, United States Law

AI chatbots refuse to produce ‘controversial’ output − why that’s a free speech problem

Jordi Calvet-Bademunt and Jacob Mchangama are policy researchers who study free speech, as well as executive director and a research fellow at The Future of Free Speech, an independent, nonpartisan think tank based at Vanderbilt University. In a recent report, they found that generative AI has important shortcomings regarding freedom of expression and access to information.

Subjects: AI, Education, Free Speech

Toward a durable, dictator-proof Washington Post

David H. Rothman’s timely, outside the box commentary addresses the growing wave of news outlets abruptly closing down their websites, laying off staff, and in some cases, eliminating access to their respective archives. Rothman proposes an alternative to “how do I charge them enough” to stem the tide of closures, an avenue he prompts billionaire Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, to consider. A good-sized trust or corporate equivalent would enable the Washington Post to be run as a sustainable enterprise in the public interest, rather than as a mere profit generator.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Economy, Ethics, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, KM, Leadership, Management, Social Media, Technology Trends