FIREwire — October 31, 2025
Creeley testifies on 'jawboning,' ex-Coast Guard acquitted, Lukianoff speaks at Utah Valley University
“A free country does not dispatch police in the dead of night to pull people from their homes because a sheriff objects to their social media posts.”
— FIRE senior attorney Adam Steinbaugh on the arrest and detention of Larry Bushart
Creeley speaks to Senate Commerce Committee on ‘jawboning’
FIRE Legal Director Will Creeley testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on “jawboning,” or government censorship-by-coercion.
As Creeley explained:
The law is clear: Government actors cannot silence a speaker by threatening “we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way,” as the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission did last month. Nevertheless, recent examples of jawboning abound: against private broadcasters, private universities, private social media platforms, and more. The First Amendment does not abide mob tactics.
Former Coast Guard acquitted after online posts about Trump
A Virginia federal jury found former Coast Guard Lt. Peter Stinson not guilty of soliciting the assassination of President Trump through graphic posts on social media.
The episode serves as a reminder that mere advocacy of violence isn’t necessarily illegal unless it’s directed, imminent, and likely to produce lawless action.
Felony dropped against former cop over Charlie Kirk meme
Tennessee authorities dropped a felony charge against 61-year-old former police officer Larry Bushart, who was arrested and jailed for over a month for posting a Facebook meme about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The post that got Bushart arrested and charged with making a “threat of mass violence” was a meme featuring President Trump and the words, “We have to get over it,” which Trump said last year after a school shooting in Iowa.
Below the fold
British Muslim journalist Sami Hamdi was detained while on a speaking tour in the United States by ICE at San Francisco International Airport after his visa was revoked over prior remarks critical of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
A law student is now suing the University of Florida after being expelled over a series of antisemitic X posts in March, including one that said, “Jews must be abolished by any means necessary.”
In the frame
After the murder of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University,
went to the shocked campus with a powerful message for the UVU community and America: In the face of political violence, free speech is the only way forward.Also, Word Powered: Exploring Free Speech Through Art is an exhibition at the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia, running until Dec. 31, that examines censorship and freedom of expression through diverse perspectives. The artists for Word Powered were selected from a national call by a panel of jurists that included FIRE multimedia designer Talia Barnes.
By the numbers
When a scholar is targeted for their expression, the story rarely ends when the headlines fade. According to FIRE’s Sanctioned Scholars report, nearly three-quarters of the scholars we asked said they would not change anything they said or did that led to being targeted. But many also said that, in other ways, they are now altering their speech.
