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Last week, the 5th Circuit issued an important decision relating to compelled speech in public schools. In that case, Oliver v. Arnold, the teacher instructed students to transcribe the Pledge of Allegiance. A student who disagreed with the Pledge declined to complete the assignment and instead drew a squiggly line. The teacher penalized the student and she filed suit, claiming violation of her First Amendment right against compelled speech. The district court denied the teacher’s motion for summary judgment, and the teacher appealed. The 5th Circuit dismissed the appeal, holding that a school assignment can constitute unlawful compelled speech if it requires a “written oath of allegiance” from students.

Read the opinion here.

For Arc Digital, Cathy Young wrote a piece dissecting how the term “white privilege” is inherently regressive when applied in discourse, especially when issues of class are considered.

“... it’s possible to recognize that racism (the ‘old-fashioned,’ not ‘woke’ kind) exists in America and to believe that the ‘white privilege’ framework is an extremely misleading and even counterproductive way to talk about it.”

Read the full article here.

For her Substack, Katherine Brodsky wrote an insightful essay on the practice of redefining words for political purposes and its detrimental effects on discourse.

“This phenomenon occurs when groups of people pillage a particular word or term, declare their own definition of it and then insist that the rest of us accept that very definition and all the beliefs systems that follow it.”

Read the full article here.

For The New York Times, Ross Douthat wrote an op-ed on the pitfalls of teaching about “systemic racism” yet why there is a necessary discussion to be had on its implementation.

“What’s really inflaming today’s fights, though, is that the structural-racist diagnosis isn’t being offered on its own. Instead it’s yoked to two sweeping theories about how to fight the problem it describes.”

Read the full article here.

FAIR Advisors Thomas Chatterton Williams and Kmele Foster teamed up with David French and Jason Stanley to write an op-ed for The New York Times about their unified opposition against the effort to ban CRT in education, despite their opposition to neo-racist practices unfolding in K-12 schools across the country.

“Even if this censorship is legal in the narrow context of public primary and secondary education, it is antithetical to educating students in the culture of American free expression.”

Read the full article here.

In a piece for  The Atlantic, FAIR Advisor John McWhorter draws upon  his background in linguistics to criticize the policing of language from Brandeis University’s Prevention, Advocacy & Resource Center.

“In the end, working to change conditions is much more important than obsessively curating the words and expressions we use to describe them.”

Read the full article here.

For the Center for Inquiry, FAIR Advisor Angel Eduardo wrote a heartening essay on how his life story is living proof that the “American Dream” is real and something we must continue to strive for.

“Much like its founders, and much like ourselves, our country falls short in many ways. We are too often arrogant and infantile, petulant and obtuse, myopic and solipsistic. We have often failed to live up to our ideal, and we will continue to for as long as we are here. But the beauty of the American project is its capacity for self-correction.”

Read the full article here.

For her podcast Honestly, FAIR Advisor Bari Weiss sat down with Winston Marshall, a former member of the band Mumford & Sons. Marshall departed the band after facing an online mob for his endorsement of journalist Andy Ngo's book covering the inner workings of ANTIFA.

“I could remain and continue to self-censor but it will erode my sense of integrity. Gnaw my conscience. I’ve already felt that beginning.”

Listen to the podcast here.