It is a strategy that attaches real consequences to individuals with power, rather than to an esoteric and powerless collective. Campus speech codes are no longer public property inherited by unknowing public servants. The speech codes now belong to those who oversee their maintenance. And they ignore them at their own peril.

Back in 2002, I decided to join the fight against campus speech codes because I considered them to be the principal threat against liberty in the 21st Century. I was also concerned that Abraham Lincoln was right when he said that looking at our schools today is a good way to see what the nation will look like in twenty years. I knew that speech codes had to be defeated in order to avoid a situation in which citizens were easily deprived of their rights because they were never aware of them in the first place.

At the time I joined this fight, it seemed like every public university had an unconstitutional speech code. Today, that number is more like 67%. One of the main reasons for the improvement is the efforts of a group called the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE. And now, FIRE has crafted an ingenious plan that promises to build on its momentum and make unconstitutional speech codes the exception, rather than the rule, at America’s public universities.

FIRE has put hundreds of university presidents and university attorneys on notice that their wallets could be hit if they violate the free speech rights of students on their campuses. What they are trying to do is to attack the use of qualified immunity, which is used to exempt administrators from personal liability for monetary damages.

Mike Adams was born in Columbus, Mississippi and attended high school and Community College in Texas. BA and MS in Psychology and a PhD in Sociology/Criminology from Mississippi State University. He is an Associate Professor in Criminal Justice at UNC-Wilmington where he has twice earned the student-selected Faculty Member of the Year.

Read More: http://townhall.com/columnists/MikeAdams/2011/01/10/welcome_to_personal_responsibility_101/page/full/