{"success":true,"data":{"id":"230935c6-2a85-4e35-b4fc-98d6908fef30","title":"The First Amendment’s ‘trust’ in young adults","summary":"Why is Christian Science in our name? The Home Forum Explore Account Unlock the full Monitor experience Get unlimited access to global news that cuts through the noise and brings perspectives you won’t get anywhere else.","content":"**Why is Christian Science in our name?**\n\n*    The Home Forum \n\n*    Explore \n\n*    Account \n\nUnlock the full Monitor experience\n\nGet unlimited access to global news that cuts through the noise and brings perspectives you won’t get anywhere else.\n\n Follow us: \n\n1 of 3 stories this month>[Get unlimited stories](https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0710/The-First-Amendment-s-trust-in-young-adults?icid=rss)\n\nAlready have a subscription?[Activate it](https://www.csmonitor.com/auth/update_session)\n\n### Ready for constructive world news?\n\nJoin the Monitor community.\n\n### Deepen your worldview \n\nwith **Monitor Highlights.**\n\nYour email address \n\nBy signing up, you agree to our [Privacy Policy](https://www.csmonitor.com/About/Privacy). \n\nAlready a subscriber? [Log in to hide ads](https://www.csmonitor.com/auth/sso_login).\n\n# The First Amendment’s ‘trust’ in young adults\n\nA court ruling on academic freedom in Florida also affirms college students’ ability and right to exercise independent reasoning as they sift through ideas “good and bad, easy and hard.”\n\nPhelan M. Ebenhack/AP/File\n\nStudents on a moped by the Tallahassee campus of Florida State University, one of the institutions covered by the state’s 2022 W.O.K.E. Act.\n\n*   By the Monitor's Editorial Board \n\nJuly 10, 2026, 4:40 p.m. ET\n\n**Getting your [Trinity Audio](https://trinityaudio.ai/) player ready...**\n\nAn appeals court ruled this week that the First Amendment’s freedom of speech principle protects the right of academics in Florida to discuss topics in class that some might view as discriminatory or even offensive.\n\nThe 2-1 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit struck down Florida’s 2022 W.O.K.E. Act, which sought to define how professors at higher education institutions could teach or present what it called “divisive concepts” of race and gender. Supporters of the law said it helped prevent teaching theories that could promote discrimination against students for actions “committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, national origin or sex.” Critics viewed it as an attempt to quash candid inquiry into historical and current debates around race and rights.\n\nDebate between liberal and conservative viewpoints of what should or should not be taught on campus is likely to continue in the public arena and, possibly, in further legal appeals.\n\nYet there is one point in the ruling worthy of nonpartisan attention and respect: the assertion that young adults should have the right and privilege of deciding for themselves what ideas or concepts they agree with.\n\nFlorida statutes, Judge Britt Grant wrote for the majority, recognize academic settings as “centers of inquiry – classrooms where students are trusted to puzzle through ideas that are good and bad, easy and hard, ideally getting ever closer to the truth.”\n\nAnd regardless of whether the state agrees or disagrees with ideas discussed in those classrooms, she averred, “The First Amendment trusts students to figure it out for themselves.”","source_name":"Christian Science Monitor","source_url":"https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0710/The-First-Amendment-s-trust-in-young-adults?icid=rss","url":"https://www.csmonitor.com/Editorials/the-monitors-view/2026/0710/The-First-Amendment-s-trust-in-young-adults?icid=rss","author":"the Monitor's Editorial Board","author_name":"the Monitor's Editorial Board","published_at":"2026-07-10T20:40:34.000Z","publication_date":"2026-07-10T20:40:34.000Z","image_url":"https://www.csmonitor.com/bundles/csm/images/csm-logo-ornament.svg","category":"world","topic":"world","tags":[],"political_bias":null,"bias_score":null,"confidence_score":null,"credibility_score":null,"factual_quality":null,"reading_time":3,"word_count":438,"view_count":0,"breaking":false,"breaking_news":false,"ai_analysis":null,"fact_check_status":"unverified","archive_status":"hot"}}