Speech Codes

This article revisits the legal concept of academic freedom in the wake of Professor Steven Salaita’s dehiring and the 2006 US Supreme Court decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos. It examines four key post-Garcetti decisions, each of which illustrates a potential solution to courts facing issues of academic freedom, and each of which has different implications for Professor Salaita’s dehiring. The article also proposes a new legal concept of academic freedom that would empower rather than restrict professors.

Abstract: A century ago, the AAUP declared that extramural utterances were an essential part of academic freedom. The Leo Koch case at the University of Illinois in 1960 sparked a sharp debate within the AAUP about whether extramural utterances had to meet...