Free speech is great. Giving the government more power isn’t

Speaking at CPAC, President Trump threw out juicy red meat to his audience: the “crises” of campus free speech. Predictably, the crowd cheered Trump’s pledge to issue an executive order “requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal research dollars.”

On its face, defending free speech at colleges and universities, even if rooted in partisan pandering, isn’t a problem. After all, there are plenty of real instances where institutions have tried to limit the rights of students and faculty — that even happened to me.