FIREwire — August 8, 2025
FIRE sues Marco Rubio, SCOTUS considers age-gating social media, and the State Dept targets EU tech laws
FIRE and Stanford Daily sue Marco Rubio over student deportations
The student newspaper The Stanford Daily and two lawfully present noncitizen former students, represented by FIRE, filed suit arguing that the statutes Secretary of State Marco Rubio has relied on to target noncitizens’ immigration status based on protected speech violate the First Amendment.
“In the United States of America, no one should fear a midnight knock on the door for voicing the wrong opinion,” said FIRE attorney Conor Fitzpatrick. “Free speech isn’t a privilege the government hands out. Under our Constitution it is the inalienable right of every man, woman, and child.”
Supreme Court considers age-gating social media
The Supreme Court is poised to weigh in on NetChoice v. Fitch, looking at whether age-gating social media violates the First Amendment.
The First Amendment protects the rights of children to speak, learn, and receive information, but those protections are being tested in the digital age.
“The central issue,” writes
, “is not agreement or disagreement, but whether we want public authorities to determine which content we may see, prioritize, or suppress.”State Department ordered to fight EU’s tech speech laws
Marco Rubio directed U.S. diplomats to lobby European nations against the Digital Services Act, calling it an affront to free speech and harmful to U.S. tech interests.
The DSA requires online platforms to rapidly remove vaguely defined “illegal” or “harmful” content, incentivizing them to censor rather than face hefty fines.
Also in the news
The Writers Guild, including the likes of Spike Lee and Adam McKay, signed a public letter accusing the Trump administration of an “authoritarian assault” on free speech — citing lawsuits, FCC meddling, and public disinvestment.
Los Angeles City Council not only banned the words “nigger” and “cunt” from public meetings — despite FIRE warning this is unconstitutional — and bizarrely spelled out the words letter by letter instead of writing them in the ban:
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