Academic Freedom - Relationship To Freedom of Speech

Relationship To Freedom of Speech

Academic freedom and free speech rights are not coextensive, although this widely accepted view has been recently challenged by an "institutionalist" perspective on the First Amendment. Academic freedom involves more than speech rights; for example, it includes the right to determine what is taught in the classroom. In practice, academic freedom is protected by institutional rules and regulations, letters of appointment, faculty handbooks, collective bargaining agreements, and academic custom.

In the U.S., the freedom of speech is guaranteed by the First Amendment, which states that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...." By extension, the First Amendment applies to all governmental institutions, including public universities. The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that academic freedom is a First Amendment right at public institutions. However, The United States' First Amendment has generally been held to not not apply to private institutions, including religious institutions. These private institutions may honor freedom of speech and academic freedom at their discretion.

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Famous quotes containing the words freedom of speech, relationship to, relationship, freedom and/or speech:

    When a man says that he is Jesus or Napoleon, or that the Martians are after him, or claims something else that seems outrageous to common sense, he is labeled psychotic and locked up in a madhouse. Freedom of speech is only for normal people.
    Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)

    Sometimes in our relationship to another human being the proper balance of friendship is restored when we put a few grains of impropriety onto our own side of the scale.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    Sometimes in our relationship to another human being the proper balance of friendship is restored when we put a few grains of impropriety onto our own side of the scale.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    Do we call this the land of the free? What is it to be free from King George and continue the slaves of King Prejudice? What is it to be born free and not to live free? What is the value of any political freedom, but as a means to moral freedom? Is it a freedom to be slaves, or a freedom to be free, of which we boast?
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
    Bible: New Testament Colossians 4:6.