Free expression

There’s a reason the First Amendment to the Constitution is dedicated to free expression. It is a foundational right in America — and one that authoritarians seek to dismantle in order to prevent opposition and stifle dissent.

Free speech is also the mechanism by which we enact political costs on those in power. It is how we criticize those who govern us, how we ensure other people know what is happening in their country, and how we engage in politics and hold elections on real, substantive grounds. When governments suppress expression — through force, through financial coercion, or through the chilling effect of prosecution and surveillance — they do not just silence individuals. They corrode the foundations of self-government itself.

Even as the administration has positioned itself as a proponent of free speech, its actions tell a different story. Through targeted prosecutions, visa revocations, funding threats, and deployments of federal force against protesters, government critics, and press, it has pursued a coordinated effort to silence dissent — a hallmark of the authoritarian playbook.

A government using every tool to stifle dissent

The administration has deployed an unusually broad arsenal against free expression — military and federal force against protesters and press, chemical weapons against Portland residents, visa revocations targeting foreign nationals for protected speech, and retaliatory investigations of media companies and civil society organizations. A court declared the administration’s ideological deportation policy unconstitutional, finding that using immigration authorities to punish protected expression trampled the First Amendment rights of those who express views unpopular with the president and created a widespread chilling effect.

Elite institutions have too often stayed silent or capitulated

The administration has targeted universities one at a time — putting their leaders in the position of having to sacrifice their institution or capitulate. Law firms, corporations, universities, and media companies that have acceded to the administration’s demands without legal compulsion have weakened the collective resistance that a healthy civil society depends on. What’s become clear, though, is that capitulation isn’t working, and coalitions that push back against the administration are finding that they can notch meaningful wins.

Regular Americans are still exercising their rights

Despite these pressures, dissent has not been extinguished. In communities across the country, Americans have protested, organized, and taken care of the people most vulnerable to the administration’s policies. Courts have repeatedly vindicated First Amendment claims — finding that federal force against protesters “shocks the conscience”, and that ideological deportations are unconstitutional. The legal tools to protect free expression exist. The challenge is ensuring they are used before the chilling effect becomes permanent.

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