A Florida sociology professor who lost his job last week over a hateful tweet about Harvey victims has a fledgling free-speech organization questioning the “chilling effect” harsh penalties can have on professors and students, on and off campus. 

Defending people’s right to speak without defending what they say is a growing problem, said Matthew Foldi, president and founder of Students for Free Expression, adding that living within the tension of that paradigm is essential to ensure free expression for all, even the most odious.

BERKELEY, CALIF.—In mid-August, press accounts from Charlottesville, Va., rightly emphasized the death of one innocent person and the violence of white supremacists. The prime story from Berkeley’s riot two weeks later was the opposite: Happily, no fatalities, but the left-wing “antifa” army showcased its violence, and once again most of the police stood aside at a crucial time. 

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) appears to have backed off its defense of hate groups and their rhetoric, saying it is not obliged to represent organizations whose members demonstrate while carrying firearms. The policy shift puts the national organization in line with California chapters that objected to the ACLU’s ongoing representation of white supremacist groups in the wake of the deadly Aug. 12 protest in Charlottesville, Va.

A free-speech rally in Boston was cut short Saturday when thousands of counterprotesters descended upon a bandstand on Boston Common where a series of speeches by conservatives promoting First Amendment protections was scheduled to take place. The Boston Free Speech Coalition, the group that organized the event, said it has nothing to do with white supremacists or racism and has no affiliation with organizers of last weeks’ violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., that left one person dead. “We are strictly about free speech,” the group said on its Facebook page.

Freedom of speech, although sorely tested in court, remains intact, legal experts contend. Americans are at liberty to speak their minds. But often they don’t—at least not at the office. 

Why not?

Google may have the answer.

Each week, The World and Everything in It features a “Culture Friday” segment, in which Executive Producer Nick Eicher discusses the latest cultural news with John Stonestreet, president of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Here is a summary of this week’s conversation.

On Friday, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law two bills which, as originally drafted and passed along party lines, represented serious threats to First Amendment liberties. Statewide protests forced legislators to amend the heavy-handed measures, but opponents still say the legislation represents unnecessary government infringement on constitutionally protected freedoms.