Iowa City ‘Free Speech’ rally highlights state’s legacy in First Amendment battles

Iowa has long stood at the intersection of First Amendment battles.

In 1938, Des Moines Public Library Director Forrest Spaulding penned the words that would become the Library Bill of Rights. In 1969, the landmark United States Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines helped reshape free speech rights of students in public schools.

That legacy echoed through the Iowa City Ped Mall on Wednesday, Oct. 1.

The Free Speech Rally organized by Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan aimed to inform attendees about the First Amendment, and how people can maintain their constitutional right in the shifting political climate.

“I’ve had people ask me, ‘Why? Why did you feel the need to do this? Why is this important?’ Well, I don’t think you have to look very far,” Sullivan told the crowd.

Sullivan cited the “too many attacks on the First Amendment” and growing threats to free speech at both the federal and state level.

The nearly hour-long rally drew about 100 attendees to the Ped Mall.

The evening’s speakers included Johnson County Board of Supervisors Chair Jon Green; University of Iowa professor Brett Johnson; Shawn Harmsen, Iowa City Council member and assistant professor of communication studies at Coe College; and Sam Helmick, the 2025-26 president of the ALA and community and access services coordinator at the Iowa City Public Library.

Sullivan also read a written statement from Zach Wahls, an Iowa state senator who is running for U.S. Senate.

Each speaker highlighted the importance of protected rights under the First Amendment, including free speech, freedom of the press and access to information, and emphasized the crucial role those freedoms play, from local news to local libraries.

“One of the great things about freedom of speech is somebody is free to say something you disagree with, and I hear that a lot, frankly. We’re going to keep focused on the issue, but we also have to acknowledge it’s the Trump administration right now and the Reynolds administration pushing us to places that I don’t think we ever thought we were going to be,” Sullivan said.

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Freedom of speech is the ‘great social equalizer’

Supervisor Green read excerpts from U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young’s ruling that foreign students have the same free speech protections under the First Amendment and that federal officials had been “pro-actively (and effectively) curbing lawful pro-Palestinian speech.”

“Here is a Reagan appointee who has been on the bench as long as I have been alive, saying a First Amendment case about non-citizens is likely the most important case his court has ever heard,” Green said. “The stakes, folks, the stakes.”

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Johnson, who teaches in the University of Iowa’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, encouraged people to value the First Amendment, encompassing freedom of the press and the fight against censorship.

He challenged people to have “a well-balanced news diet even if you disagree with news that’s spun from the other side,” citing that “either we are all protected or no one is protected.”

“Freedom of speech is apolitical. Freedom of speech, The First Amendment is the great social equalizer, no matter who you are, no matter what you believe, no matter who you vote for,” said Johnson. “Support for the First Amendment is, or at least it should be, the most uncontroversial thing out there today.”

Jessica Rish is an entertainment, dining and education reporter for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. She can be reached at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rishjessica_

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa City ‘Free Speech’ rally highlights state’s legacy in First Amendment battles

Reporting by Jessica Rish, Iowa City Press-Citizen / Iowa City Press-Citizen

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