Free to Learn: Speech and Sexual Harassment on Campus

This report addresses the potential tension between free speech and impermissible sexual harassment in higher education. Federal antidiscrimination law protects individuals from sexual harassment that interferes with education. The First Amendment protects speech – which may be offensive – in public schools, among other places, and regulating the content of speech can lead to the suppression of ideas and chill academic discourse. This report also evaluates guidance to higher education institutions from the United States Department of Education as to the line between protected speech and impermissible sexual harassment in education, as well as two instances of the Department’s Title IX enforcement regarding sexual harassment.