Engaged citizens use their voices to express themselves, support causes they care about,
and make positive societal change. But given today’s often volatile environment impacting
speech around critically-important issues like race, COVID-19, abortion, and more, using
this core right can seem — or even be — risky. This presentation and discussion will teach
students about First Amendment Rights, both how to use theirs, and how to respect them
for others they disagree with, on campus and beyond. This lecture will make the normative
case for tolerating “the speech you hate” instead of calling for censorship, how to address
“hate speech,” and how our world benefits when engaged citizens speak up, especially
when it’s hard or scary. The presenter will encourage and answer tough questions on this
Ms. Alex Morey is an attorney and a journalist whose approach to defending student and
faculty rights blends trusted legal strategy and the power of public interest reporting. She
leads FIRE’s Campus Rights Advocacy department, a team of attorneys and advocates who
help people of all political and ideological persuasions facing civil liberties threats on
Ms. Morey is a member of the First Amendment Lawyers Association. She has a J.D. from
the University of Wisconsin Law School, a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from
Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and has trained at
the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She graduated with honors from
the University of Arizona in her hometown of Tucson, majoring in journalism and French.
She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar, where she taught English in rural,
Ms. Morey is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia, New York, and Wisconsin,
where she lives with her husband and their three children.
Co-sponsored by UIS College of Public Affairs & Education and Dean of Students Office