Federal Funding and the First Amendment
A research initiative studying the question of when the government may regulate speech by imposing conditions on federal funding.
Since taking office for a second term, President Trump has issued a wave of executive orders attempting to place conditions on how recipients of federal funding can speak and associate. Contemporary First Amendment doctrine is confusing and even incoherent on the question of when the government may regulate speech by imposing conditions on federal funding. The Supreme Court has said that Congress has broad power to tax and spend for the general welfare, and that this power encompasses the authority to impose limits on the use of the funds to ensure that they are used for the purpose Congress intends. At the same time, the First Amendment precludes the government from denying a benefit on a basis that infringes the applicant’s freedom of speech, even if the applicant does not have an entitlement to that benefit.
The Knight Institute’s research initiative on federal funding and the First Amendment engages legal scholars and litigators from varying backgrounds. Through a convening and a series of blog posts and essays, this project will consider constitutional questions about federal funding restrictions and how they apply to the Trump administration’s executive orders.
Deep Dive
-
A Brief Legal Analysis of the Department of Education’s Proposed Compact for Higher Education
The Department of Education’s proposed Compact for Higher Education is unconstitutional and should be unequivocally rejected by universities
By Amanda Shanor & Serena Mayeri -
The Trump Spending Cuts, the Public/Private Distinction, and the Limits of the Modern First Amendment
What the Trump administration's actions have revealed about the limits of the First Amendment’s public/private distinction
By Genevieve Lakier -
-
A Title VI Demand Letter That Still Violates Title VI (and the Constitution)
In response to Judge Vyskocil's opinion in AAUP v. U.S. Department of Justice
By Kate Andrias , Jessica Bulman-Pozen , Suzanne Goldberg , Jamal Greene , Olatunde C. Johnson , Jeremy Kessler , Gillian Metzger & David Pozen -
Facts and Feelings: First Amendment Challenges to Mandated Ideological Compliance for Scientific Grants
The restrictions imposed on researchers by Trump's "gender ideology" executive order are fundamentally incompatible with the scientific process
By Kendra Albert -
Congress Could Do Something About the Weaponization of Federal Funding to Silence Speech. For Now, It Probably Won’t.
What Congress can do to take back control of the funding process
By Kate Ruane -
Federal Funding as a Jawbone
The First Amendment's prohibition on jawboning makes the government's attempts to suppress speech at universities like Harvard unconstitutional
By Evelyn Douek -
The Strange Use of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard to Control Teaching and Learning
The Trump administration is distorting Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to justify its assertion of control over universities
By Olatunde C. Johnson -
Employing the Anti-Leveraging Test to Effectively Protect Grantee Speech
An interpretation of Agency for International Development
By Sam Bagenstos -
Speech-Related Conditions on Federal Funding in the University Context
How Supreme Court doctrine on academic freedom might impact cases about conditions on federal funding
By Frederick P. Schaffer -
Conditional Funding Can Raise Difficult Legal Questions. Trump’s Freezes Don’t.
Despite some confusion in the doctrine, the Trump administration's use of the funding power is clearly unlawful
By Michael C. Dorf
Institute Update
-
Knight Institute Initiative on “Federal Funding and the First Amendment” Draws Leading Scholars and Litigators
On Friday, May 23, the Knight Institute will host a closed convening at Columbia University to explore the question of when the government may regulate speech by imposing conditions on federal funding.
By Katy Glenn Bass -
