Taking Trump’s Speech Crackdown to Court (w/ Conor Fitzpatrick)

Bulwark Takes

The Bulwark

News, Society & Culture, Politics, News Commentary

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 August 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Trump administration is trying to deport foreign students for doing nothing more than speaking their minds — attending protests, writing editorials, voicing opinions the government doesn’t like. It’s a direct attack on the First Amendment, and FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) is taking them to court.

Sarah Longwell talks with FIRE attorney Conor Fitzpatrick about the lawsuit, the students targeted, and why this fight matters for everyone’s free speech—citizen or not.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Building a coffee business? Serving the best Americano in town is up to you. But winning back time and growing your business, leave that to sum up. Take orders and payments anywhere with the new SumUp terminal. Turn occasional customers into regulars with a free loyalty program. And with the SumUp point of sale system, you'll always know when you're running low on your best selling blends. Visit sumup.co.uk to learn more. Hey guys, Sarah Longwell here,
0:21.4	publisher of the bulwark.
0:23.7	And I'm joined today by Connor Fitzpatrick,
0:26.5	attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression,
0:31.1	fire, an organization that is literally fire.
0:35.9	It does great work. It is a principled group that protects literally fire. It does great work.
0:37.6	It is a principled group that protects free speech.
0:41.7	And Connor, I'm super excited to have you here.
0:43.4	Thanks for being here, man.
0:44.5	Thanks for having me.
0:45.8	Okay.
0:46.4	Context for why we are talking.
0:49.6	You guys filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
0:52.5	And Fire said on its website, Secretary of State Marco Rubio against the Trump administration, and Fire said on its website,
0:55.7	Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump administration have waged an unprecedented
1:00.0	assault on free speech targeting foreign university students for deportation based on bedrock
1:07.2	protected speech like writing out beds and peacefully attending protests.
1:15.9	Their attack is casting a pall of fear over millions of non-citizens who worry that voicing the quote-unquote wrong opinion about America or Israel will result in deportation.
1:22.1	Okay, Connor, will you just give us a rundown of some of the notable crackdowns on non-citizen speech
1:29.0	and how this lawsuit, which is Stanford Daily Publishing Corporation at all versus Rubio
1:35.7	at all? How does it deal with that?
1:38.0	So the two main ones that folks have probably seen in the news from earlier this year are
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