Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0001-7836-4072

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Keywords

Extramural speech, Expressive activity, First Amendment, Employee speech rights, Academia, Tenure

Abstract

As battles over academia escalate, an area of intensifying concern is the speech faculty engage in outside their professional functions—what is often called “extramural” speech. Professors have been criticized, disciplined, pressured to resign, and even terminated for extramural speech that is deemed offensive by individuals inside and outside university communities. And yet, academics generally remain committed to a principle that this Article identifies as extramural absolutism.

The Article explains extramural absolutism’s unpopularity outside academia as a reasonable consequence of the way supporters have presented and justified it. Contrary to widespread scholarly portrayal, extramural absolutism is not a moderate concession justified by the intrinsic value of academics’ speech: It is a stark deviation from standard employment practices obtaining in the general labor market.

Nevertheless, the Article shows that extramural absolutism makes sense and is, in fact, the only practical solution. The work academics do (and are expected to do) and the way academics work (and are expected to work) make principled line-drawing impossible. Attention to the dynamics and demands of academic labor shows why an absolutist approach remains both reasonable and necessary.

First Page

321

Publication Title

Journal of Free Speech Law

Download

Share

COinS