Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Free Expression in a Climate of Self-Censorship: A National Survey of American Law Faculty:

Executive Summary. This report presents findings from a national survey of 1,959 law school faculty at 192 American Bar Association (ABA) approved law schools in the United States, conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). As one of the largest surveys of law faculty on free expression and professional norms, the data reveal a profession that strongly endorses free speech principles while struggling to live them out in practice.

Key findings include:

1. A majority of law faculty say American legal education is heading in the wrong direction. 
2. Law faculty strongly endorse free speech in principle, but often struggle to practice it. Nearly nine in ten say offensive speech used for a pedagogical purpose deserves complete protection, yet a majority report feeling unable to express their opinions at their law school.
3. Law faculty broadly reject the Obama-era Department of Education’s expansive approach to hostile-environment harassment: 62% say the guidance on what expression could be punished was too broad. By contrast, a majority (54%) say the Supreme Court’s narrower standard strikes the right balance.
4. More than nine in ten law faculty surveyed support adopting written policies encouraging free expression. 
5. Most law faculty find required DEI statements unjustifiable as a condition of hiring or promotion.
6. Most (54%) law faculty say a liberal individual would be a very positive fit in their law school, compared to 16% who say the same for a conservative. 
7. Law faculty are far more willing to attribute anti-conservative bias to their colleagues than to acknowledge it in themselves: 56% say colleagues would penalize a notably conservative job candidate versus 22% who admit they themselves would. The same pattern also holds for mentoring a notably conservative student: 32% versus 7%.
8. Conservative law faculty experience a sharply different climate than their liberal colleagues: 61% of conservative faculty say their law school is hostile toward people with their political beliefs, compared to 11% of liberal faculty, and three times as many hide their political beliefs to keep their job (52% versus 17%).

• ABA Journal, Majority of Law School Faculty Self-Censor, Think Legal Education Headed in Wrong Direction, New Survey Finds
• Above the Law, Even If Law Professors Are Self-Censoring, Let’s Not Rush To Any Conclusions About ‘Liberal Bias’
• Daily Wire, Law Professors Say They Support Free Speech. Many Are Afraid To Practice It.
• Reuters, Law Faculty Are Self-Censoring, Survey Finds
• Howard Wasserman (FIU), FIRE Critics, Even Among Speech Advocates

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