Conservatives are champions of free speech — and they shouldn’t lose sight of that fact.

When woke leftists wielded institutional power and squelched campus free speech, the right defended students’ and professors’ ability to say whatever they please.

But now, a new report from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression shows a record number of students whose speech rights were violated, driven by a rise of conservative suppression of expression.

The right needs to be careful not to squash the free speech it was just defending. 

FIRE’s Students Under Fire database shows that at least 273 students were targeted for their speech — a record breaking number that’s higher than even the depths of cancel culture in 2020.

The organization says they’ve noticed “a uptick in attempts by the political right to silence speech,” mostly by threatening to strip funding if certain students are not expelled, demanding certain groups be banned and writing executive orders to ban controversial shows or festivals.

“Such actions could have the effect of chilling speech across an entire campus — and across an entire generation,” FIRE Senior Researcher Logan Dougherty said. “What kind of lesson is that? That the safest move in college is to keep your head down and your mouth shut?”

Conservatives were rightfully outraged when leftists trampled free speech and made conservative students self-censor for years on end. Still today only 36% of students feel confident that their speech would be protected by their administration.

The left is the party of cancel culture, shutdowns, mob mentality, speech codes, and groupthink. Left-dominated academic spaces have been outright hostile to anyone right of far left for years.

But, now that the right have political control, they are indulging in some of the same instincts, and it is fighting fire with fire.

Student protests about Palestine and the assassination of Charlie Kirk were both lightening rods of controversy, and both led to explicit calls for cancel culture from the right.

Databases were made to publicly shame pro-Palestine student protesters, and trucks circled campuses with LED screens blasting the faces and names of those whose foreign policy beliefs were considered beyond the pale.

A student at Oberlin College odiously said she doesn’t “feel bad” about Charlie Kirk’s assassination — but Republican Representative Derrick Van Orden crossed a serious free speech line by announcing legislation that would strip the school of funding unless she was expelled.

Vice President JD Vance even went out of his way to encourage people to call employers if someone celebrated the death of Kirk. It goes without saying that anyone who does so is despicable, but since when does the right organize cancel culture campaigns — let alone ones coming from the tip-top of government?

It’s not about the content of the speech, it’s about the principle. Free speech doesn’t just extend to speech that you or your party likes. It also includes speech you find incredibly offensive. Defending free speech requires remarkable restraint.

The right defended conservative students who were self-censoring, but they also must defend pro-Palestine students whose views they detest in order to be consistent.

Meanwhile, sweeping conservative executive action has also encroached on university independence.

Schools like the University of Alabama shut down identity-oriented student magazines dedicated to black and female issues, citing conservative anti-DEI orders. Other schools have shut down student-led drag shows to comply with new laws.

You might not like any of these things — but conservatives should not be attempting to outright censor them. The culture wars can only be won through persuasion, not through force.

On top of all this, the federal government has attempted to wield federal funding as a tool to get schools to do what they want.

At Columbia, that included a demand that the school put their entire Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under “academic receivership for a minimum of five years.” This calls into question whether professors would have academic freedom under a government-mandated monitor.

The administration has also attempted to tilt the ideological scales by offering top universities more federal money if they get rid of departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.” But that sounds a lot like fighting censorship with censorship.

It’s great that the right is finally holding the left to account for their abandonment of free speech. It’s long overdue. But restoring free speech will take principled discipline.

This isn’t about exacting revenge on universities. It’s about ensuring that the next generation knows how to engage in dialogue and is free to do so. Students — all students, regardless of their viewpoint or identity — need to have their speech protected.

The political right can set a tremendous example for young people by proving that they’re committed to the principle of free speech, full stop, no matter who is exercising it or what they are saying.

Conservatives must avoid slipping into a politics of vengeance and keep sight of free speech principles that make our country great.