"A Letter on Justice and Open Debate", also known as the ''Harper's'' Letter, is an

open letter An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...

defending

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognise ...

published on the ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...

'' website on July 7, 2020, with 153 signatories, criticizing what it called "

illiberalism Historically, the adjective illiberal has been mostly applied to personal attitudes, behaviors and practices “unworthy of a free man”, such as lack of generosity, lack of sophisticated culture, intolerance, narrow-mindedness, meanness. Lord Ches ...

" spreading across society. While the letter denounced President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

as "a real threat to democracy", it argued that hostility to free speech was becoming widespread on the

political left Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politi ...

as well.

Background

Writers Robert Worth,

George Packer George Packer (born August 13, 1960) is an American journalist, novelist, and playwright. He is best known for his writings about U.S. foreign policy for ''The New Yorker'' and ''The Atlantic'' and for his book '' The Assassins' Gate: America in ...

, David Greenberg,

Mark Lilla Mark Lilla (born 1956) is an American political scientist, historian of ideas, journalist, and professor of humanities at Columbia University in New York City. A self-described liberal, he typically, though not always, presents views from that p ...

, and

Thomas Chatterton Williams Thomas Chatterton Williams (born March 26, 1981) is an American cultural critic and writer. Williams, described by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' as having "spearheaded" the effort, was initially worried that its timing might cause it to be seen as a reaction to the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...

, which he considered a legitimate response to

police brutality in the United States Police brutality is the use of excessive or unwarranted force by law enforcement, resulting in physical or psychological harm to a person. It includes beatings, killing, intimidation tactics, racist abuse, and/or torture. Police brutality, rac ...

, but ultimately decided to publish it, citing various recent events such as the firing of

David Shor David Shor (born 1991) is an American data scientist and political consultant known for analyzing political polls. He serves as head of data science with Blue Rose Research in New York City, and is a senior fellow with the Center for American Progr ...

. Shor was fired after public backlash from

tweeting A tweet (officially known as a post since 2023) is a short status update on the social networking site Twitter (officially known as X since 2023) which can include images, videos, GIFs, straw polls, hashtags, mentions, and hyperlinks. Around 8 ...

a paper by

Omar Wasow Omar Tomas Wasow (born December 22, 1970) is an assistant professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Political Science. He is co-founder of the social networking website BlackPlanet. Life Wasow grew up in a multi-ethnic family. His father, Berna ...

, which argued nonviolent protest was more effective at shaping

public opinion Public opinion, or popular opinion, is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to society. It is the people's views on matters affecting them. In the 21st century, public opinion is widely thought to be heavily ...

. In total, around 20 people contributed to the letter's contents.

Summary

The letter describes

right-wing Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...

illiberalism and then-US president

as "a real threat to democracy", but argues that the political left engages in censorship of its own, denouncing "an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty." Per the letter, "Editors are fired for running controversial pieces; books are withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity; journalists are barred from writing on certain topics; professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class; a researcher is fired for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study; and the heads of organizations are ousted for what are sometimes just clumsy mistakes", "The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation", and "We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences." The letter concludes, "If we won’t defend the very thing on which our work depends, we shouldn’t expect the public or the state to defend it for us."

Signatories

The letter is signed by 152 people, mostly scholars and writers. They include academics from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. Notable signatories include linguist

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

; fiction writers

J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( ; born 31 July 1965), known by her pen name , is a British author and philanthropist. She is the author of ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume fantasy novel series published from 1997 to 2007. The series has List of best-sell ...

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern wor ...

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...

Martin Amis Sir Martin Louis Amis (25 August 1949 – 19 May 2023) was an English novelist, essayist, memoirist, screenwriter and critic. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and '' London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Mem ...

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, Literary adaptation, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Marcel Proust, Proust, via Vladimir Nabokov, Nabokov", ...

Daniel Kehlmann Daniel Kehlmann (; born 13 January 1975) is a German-language novelist and playwright of both Austrian and German nationality.Jeffrey Eugenides Jeffrey Kent Eugenides (born March 8, 1960) is an American author. He has written numerous short stories and essays, as well as three novels: '' The Virgin Suicides'' (1993), ''Middlesex'' (2002), and '' The Marriage Plot'' (2011). ''The Virgin Su ...

; world chess champion

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

; political scientist

Francis Fukuyama Francis Yoshihiro Fukuyama (; born October 27, 1952) is an American political scientist, political economist, and international relations scholar, best known for his book '' The End of History and the Last Man'' (1992). In this work he argues th ...

; feminist

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem ( ; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social movement, social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ...

; cognitive psychologist

Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychology, cognitive psychologist, psycholinguistics, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psycholo ...

; journalists

Fareed Zakaria Fareed Rafiq Zakaria (; born January 20, 1964) is an Indian-born American journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN's '' Fareed Zakaria GPS'' and writes a weekly paid column for ''The Washington Post.'' He has been a c ...

Malcolm Gladwell Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is a Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has published eight books. He is also the host of the podcast ''Revisionist ...

Anne Applebaum Anne Elizabeth Applebaum (born July 25, 1964) is an American journalist and historian. She has written about the history of Communism and the development of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe. She holds Polish citizenship as well. Ap ...

Ian Buruma Ian Buruma (born 28 December 1951) is a Dutch writer and editor who lives and works in the United States. In 2017, he became editor of ''The New York Review of Books'', but left the position in September 2018. Much of his writing has focused on t ...

David Frum David Jeffrey Frum (; born 30 June 1960) is a Canadian-American political commentator and a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush. He is a senior editor at ''The Atlantic'' as well as an MSNBC contributor. In 2003, Frum authored the ...

, and David Brooks; composer

Wynton Marsalis Wynton Learson Marsalis (born October 18, 1961) is an American trumpeter, composer, and music instructor, who is currently the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has been active in promoting classical and jazz music, often to young ...

; writer and former

Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada The leader of the Liberal Party of Canada (French: ) is the highest position within the federal Liberal Party of Canada. The current holder of the position is Mark Carney, who was elected to the position on March 9, 2025, following his victory ...

Michael Ignatieff Michael Grant Ignatieff ( ; born May 12, 1947) is a Canadian author, academic and former politician who served as leader of the Liberal Party and leader of the Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a historian, Ignatieff has ...

; political theorist

Michael Walzer Michael Laban Walzer (born March 3, 1935) is an American Political theory, political theorist and public intellectual. A professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, he is editor emeritus of the left-win ...

; economist

Deirdre McCloskey Deirdre Nansen McCloskey (born Donald Nansen McCloskey; September 11, 1942) is an American economist and academic. Since 2023 she has been a Distinguished Scholar and holder of the Isaiah Berlin Chair in Liberal Thought at the Cato Institute i ...

; poet

Roya Hakakian Roya Hakakian (; born 1966) is an Iranian American Jewish journalist, lecturer, and writer. Born in Iran, she came to the United States as a refugee and is now a naturalized citizen. She is the author of several books, including an acclaimed memoi ...

; surgeon

Atul Gawande Atul Atmaram Gawande (born November 5, 1965) is an American surgeon, writer, and public health researcher. He practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a professor in the Department ...

; music journalist

Greil Marcus Greil Marcus (né Gerstley; born June 19, 1945) is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a broader framework of culture and politics. Biogra ...

; and social psychologist

Jonathan Haidt Jonathan David Haidt (; born October 19, 1963) is an American social psychologist and author. He is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at the New York University Stern School of Business. Haidt's main areas of study are the psyc ...

. Signatories generally did not know who had signed the letter until it was published. At least one,

Jennifer Finney Boylan Jennifer Finney Boylan (born June 22, 1958) is an American author, transgender activist, professor at Barnard College, and a former contributing opinion writer for the ''New York Times''. In December 2023, she became the president of PEN America ...

, expressed qualms about some of the other signatories but affirmed her endorsement. Others who reaffirmed their support for the letter's contents, such as

Katha Pollitt Katha Pollitt (born October 14, 1949) is an American poet, essayist and critic. She is the author of four essay collections and two books of poetry. Her writing focuses on political and social issues from a left-leaning perspective, including abo ...

, said they disagreed with some of the signatories on other issues but did not mind signing the same statement.

Full list

Elliot Ackerman Elliot Ackerman (born April 12, 1980) is an American author and former Marine Corps special operations team leader. He is the ''New York Times''–bestselling author of the novels '' 2034: A Novel of the Next World War'', '' Red Dress In Black ...

* Saladin Ambar *

Marie Arana Marie Arana (born Lima, Peru) is a Peruvian and American author, editor, journalist, critic, and the inaugural Literary Director of the Library of Congress. Personal life Marie Arana was born in Lima, Peru, the daughter of Jorge Enrique Arana C ...

Mia Bay Mia Bay is an American historian and currently the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Chair in American History at the University of Pennsylvania. She studies American and African-American intellectual and cultural history and is the author of, among ...

Louis Begley Louis Begley (born Ludwik Begleiter; October 6, 1933) is a Polish-American novelist. He is best known for writing the semi-autobiographical Holocaust novel ''Wartime Lies'' (1991) and the ''Schmidt'' trilogy: ''About Schmidt'' (1996), ''Schmidt ...

Roger Berkowitz Roger S. Berkowitz is the founder and Head Fishmonger/CEO of Roger’s Fish Co., an e-commerce company delivering premium quality seafood and prepared meals nationwide. He was formerly the President and Chief Executive Officer for 30 years of L ...

Paul Berman } Paul Lawrence Berman (born 1949) is an American writer on politics and literature. His books include '' Terror and Liberalism'' ( a ''New York Times'' best-seller in 2003), ''The Flight of the Intellectuals'', ''A Tale of Two Utopias'', ''Power ...

Sheri Berman Sheri E. Berman (born 1965) is an American political scientist. She is a Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is the author of scholarly books and articles on European social democracy, fascism, populism an ...

* Reginald Dwayne Betts * Neil Blair *

David W. Blight David William Blight (born 1949) is the Sterling Professor of History, of African American Studies, and of American Studies and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. Previous ...

David Bromwich David Bromwich is Sterling Professor of English at Yale University. Career After graduating from Yale with a B.A. in 1973 and a Ph.D. four years later, Bromwich became an instructor at Princeton University, where he was promoted to Mellon Prof ...

* David Brooks *

* Lea Carpenter *

Nicholas Christakis Nicholas A. Christakis ( ) (born May 7, 1962) is a Greek American sociologist and physician known for his research on social networks and on the social, economic, biological, and evolutionary determinants of human welfare (including the behavio ...

Roger Cohen Roger Cohen is a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and author. He is a correspondent and former foreign editor and Op-Ed columnist for ''The New York Times''. He has worked as a foreign correspondent in more than 60 countries and was named Pari ...

* Frances D. Cook * Drucilla Cornell *

Kamel Daoud Kamel Daoud (; born June 17, 1970) is an Algerian writer and journalist. He currently edits the French-language daily '' Le quotidien d’Oran,'' for which he writes a popular column, "Raïna Raïkoum" (Our Opinion, Your Opinion). The column oft ...

Meghan Daum Meghan Elizabeth Daum (born February 13, 1970) is an American author, essayist, podcaster, and journalist. Childhood and education Daum was born in California, and grew up in Austin, Texas, and Ridgewood, New Jersey. She received her bachelor's ...

Gerald Early Gerald Lyn Early (born April 21, 1952) is an American essayist and American culture critic. He is currently the Merle Kling Professor of Modern letters, of English, African studies, African-American studies, American culture studies, and Dire ...

Jeffrey Eugenides Jeffrey Kent Eugenides (born March 8, 1960) is an American author. He has written numerous short stories and essays, as well as three novels: '' The Virgin Suicides'' (1993), ''Middlesex'' (2002), and '' The Marriage Plot'' (2011). ''The Virgin Su ...

Dexter Filkins Dexter Price Filkins (born May 24, 1961) is an American journalist known primarily for his coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for ''The New York Times''. He was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for his dispatches from Afghanistan ...

Federico Finchelstein Federico Finchelstein is an Argentine historian and chair of the history department at the New School for Social Research and is director of the Janey Program in Latin American Studies. After receiving his undergraduate education at the Universit ...

Caitlin Flanagan Caitlin Flanagan (born November 14, 1961) is an American writer and social critic. A contributor to ''The Atlantic'' since February 2001, she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2019. Her 2004 piece for ''The New Yorker'' was ...

* Richard T. Ford * Kmele Foster *

Todd Gitlin Todd Alan Gitlin (January 6, 1943 – February 5, 2022) was an American sociologist, political activist and writer, novelist, and cultural commentator. He wrote about the mass media, politics, intellectual life, and the arts for both popular an ...

Kim Ghattas Kim Ghattas (; born 1977) is a Lebanese journalist based in Beirut who writes for ''The Atlantic''. Previously, she covered the US State Department for the BBC. She is a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the author ...

Michelle Goldberg Michelle Goldberg (born 1975)"Michelle Goldberg". Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2016. Retrieved via Biography in Context database, January 28, 2017. is an American journalist and author, and an op-ed columnist for ''The New York Tim ...

Rebecca Goldstein Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (born February 23, 1950) is an American philosopher, novelist, and public intellectual. She has written ten books, both fiction and non-fiction. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy of science from Princeton University, and ...

Anthony Grafton Anthony Thomas Grafton (born May 21, 1950) is an American historian of early modern Europe and the Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University, where he is also the Director the Program in European Cultural Studies. He i ...

* David Greenberg *

Linda Greenhouse Linda Joyce Greenhouse (born January 9, 1947) is an American legal journalist who is the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph M. Goldstein Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. She is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who has cove ...

* (withdrawn) * Rinne B. Groff *

Sarah Haider Sarah Haider is a Pakistani-born American writer, public speaker, and political activist. She cofounded the advocacy group Ex-Muslims of North America (EXMNA), which seeks to normalize religious dissent and to help Ex-Muslims, former Muslims ...

Shadi Hamid Shadi Hamid (born 1983) is an American author and political scientist who is currently a columnist at the ''Washington Post.'' From 2023 to 2024, he was a member of the Editorial Board of the ''Post''. Previously, he was a longtime senior fellow ...

Jeet Heer Jeet Heer is a Canadian author, comics critic, literary critic and journalist. He is a national affairs correspondent for ''The Nation'' magazine and a former staff writer at ''The New Republic''. The publications he has written for include '' The ...

* Katie Herzog *

Susannah Heschel Susannah Heschel (born 15 May 1956) is an American scholar and professor of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College. The author and editor of numerous books and articles, she is a Guggenheim Fellow. Heschel's scholarship focuses on Jewish and Christi ...

Adam Hochschild Adam Hochschild ( ; born October 5, 1942) is an American author, journalist, historian and lecturer. His best-known works include ''King Leopold's Ghost'' (1998), ''To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914–1918'' (2011), '' Bur ...

Arlie Russell Hochschild Arlie Russell Hochschild (; born January 15, 1940) is an American professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley and writer. Hochschild has long focused on the human emotions that underlie moral beliefs, practices, and ...

Eva Hoffman Eva Hoffman (born Ewa Wydra on 1 July 1945) is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning writer and academic. Early life and education Eva Hoffman was born in Kraków, Poland, shortly after World War II. Her parents, Boris and Maria Wydra, surv ...

Coleman Hughes Coleman Cruz Hughes (born February 25, 1996) is an American writer and podcast host. He was a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and a fellow and contributing editor at their '' City Journal'', and he is the host of the podca ...

Hussein Ibish Hussein Yusuf Kamal Ibish (; born 1963) is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He is a weekly columnist for The National (UAE), former columnist for Bloomberg, regular contributor to The Atlantic and The Dail ...

* Zaid Jilani *

Bill T. Jones William Tass Jones, known as Bill T. Jones (born February 15, 1952), is an American Choreography, choreographer, director, author and dancer. He is the co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. The company's home in Manhattan. J ...

Wendy Kaminer Wendy Kaminer (born December 28, 1949) is an American lawyer and writer. She has written several books on contemporary social issues, including ''A Fearful Freedom: Women's Flight From Equality'', about the conflict between egalitarian and protect ...

* Matthew Karp *

Daniel Kehlmann Daniel Kehlmann (; born 13 January 1975) is a German-language novelist and playwright of both Austrian and German nationality.Randall Kennedy Randall LeRoy Kennedy (born September 10, 1954) is an American legal scholar. He is the Michael R. Klein Professor of Law at Harvard University and his research focuses on the intersection of racial conflict and legal institutions in American l ...

Khaled Khalifa Khaled Khalifa (; 1 January 1964 – 30 September 2023) was a Syrian novelist, screenwriter and poet. He was nominated three times and shortlisted twice for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF). Some of his novels have been transl ...

Parag Khanna Parag Khanna is an Indian-born strategy advisor and author. He is Founder & CEO of AlphaGeo, an AI based geospatial predictive analytics platform. Early life and education Khanna was born in Kanpur, India. His childhood was spent between India ...

Laura Kipnis Laura may refer to: People and fictional characters * Laura (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters with the name * Laura, muse of Petrarch's poetry * Laura, the British code name for the World War I Belgian spy Marthe Cno ...

* Frances Kissling *

Enrique Krauze Enrique Krauze Kleinbort (born 16 September 1947) is a Mexican historian, essayist, editor, and entrepreneur. He has written more than twenty books, some of which are: ''Mexico: Biography of Power'', ''Redeemers'', and ''El pueblo soy yo'' (''I ...

* Anthony Kronman *

Joy Ladin Joy Ladin (born March 24, 1961) is an American poet and the former David and Ruth Gottesman Chair in English at Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University. She was the first openly transgender professor at an Orthodox Jewish institution. Ear ...

Nicholas Lemann Nicholas Berthelot Lemann is an American writer and academic, and is the Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Journalism and Dean Emeritus of the Faculty of Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He ...

* Susie Linfield * Damon Linker *

Dahlia Lithwick Dahlia Lithwick is a Canadian-American lawyer, writer, and journalist. Lithwick is a contributing editor at ''Newsweek'' and senior editor at ''Slate (magazine), Slate''. She primarily writes about law and politics in the United States. She write ...

Steven Lukes Steven Michael Lukes (born 8 March 1941) is a British political and social theorist. Currently he is a professor of politics and sociology at New York University. He was formerly a professor at the University of Siena, the European University ...

John R. MacArthur John Rick MacArthur (born June 4, 1956) is an American journalist, historian, and author of books about US politics. He is the president and publisher of ''Harper's Magazine''. Biography MacArthur is the son of J. Roderick MacArthur and Frenc ...

* Susan Madrak *

Phoebe Maltz Bovy Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a cultural critic. She has a PhD in French and French Studies from New York University. She cohosts the Canadian Jewish News podcast ''Bonjour Chai'' with Rabbi Avi Finegold. In 2017, she authored the book ''The Perils of "Pri ...

Kati Marton Kati Marton (born April 3, 1949) is a Hungarian-American author and journalist. Her career has included reporting for ABC News as a foreign correspondent and National Public Radio, where she started as a production assistant in 1971, as well as ...

* Debra Mashek *

John McWhorter John Hamilton McWhorter V (; born October 6, 1965) is an American linguist. He is an associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, where he also teaches American studies and music history. He has authored a number of books on race ...

Uday Mehta Uday or Odai is a masculine name in Arabic as well as several Languages of India, Indian languages. In numerous Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil and others, it means 'dawn' or 'rise'. The Arabic name () means 'runner' or ...

Andrew Moravcsik Andrew Maitland Moravcsik (born 1957) is professor of politics and international affairs, director of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, and founding director of both the European Union Program and the International Relations Fac ...

* Yascha Mounk *

Samuel Moyn Samuel Aaron Moyn (born 1972) is the Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University, previously the Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale Law School and Professor of History at Yale University, which he joined in July ...

Meera Nanda Meera Nanda (born 1954) is an Indian writer and historian of science, who has authored several works critiquing the influence of Hindutva, postcolonialism and postmodernism on science, and the flourishing of pseudoscience and vedic science. Mee ...

Cary Nelson Cary Nelson (born 1946), is an American professor emeritus of English and Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was president of the American Association of University Professors bet ...

Olivia Nuzzi Olivia Nuzzi ( ; born January 6, 1993) is an American political reporter who was the Washington, D.C., correspondent for '' New York'' magazine from 2017 to 2024. Prior to her time at ''New York'', Nuzzi was a writer for ''The Daily Beast'' cove ...

* Mark Oppenheimer *

Dael Orlandersmith Dael Orlandersmith (born Donna Brown; 1960) is an American actress, poet and playwright. She is known for her Obie Award-winning ''Beauty's Daughter'' and the 2002 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Drama, ''Yellowman''. Early life Orlandersmith, born Don ...

Nell Irvin Painter Nell Irvin Painter (born Nell Elizabeth Irvin; August 2, 1942) is an American historian notable for her works on United States Southern history of the nineteenth century. She is retired from Princeton University as the Edwards Professor of Amer ...

* Greg Pardlo *

Orlando Patterson Horace Orlando Patterson (born 5 June 1940) is a Jamaican-American historian and sociologist known for his work on the history of race and slavery in the United States and Jamaica, as well as the sociology of development. He is currently the Jo ...

Letty Cottin Pogrebin Letty Cottin Pogrebin (born June 9, 1939) is an American author, journalist, lecturer, and social activist. She is a founding editor of ''Ms.'' magazine, the author of twelve books, and was an editorial consultant for the TV special '' Free to B ...

* Claire Bond Potter * Taufiq Rahim * Zia Haider Rahman * Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen *

Jonathan Rauch Jonathan Charles Rauch ( ; born April 26, 1960) is an American author, journalist, and activist. After graduating from Yale University, Rauch worked at the ''Winston-Salem Journal'' in North Carolina, for ''National Journal'', and later for ''The ...

* Neil Roberts * Melvin Rogers *

Kat Rosenfield Kathryn Rosenfield (born March 16, 1982) is an American culture writer, columnist and novelist. Beginning in 2004, Rosenfield worked in various communications jobs, including a publicist for Penguin Books, copywriter for the Brooklyn Public Librar ...

* Loretta J. Ross *

Karim Sadjadpour Karim Sadjadpour () is an Iranian-American policy analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace based in Washington D.C. Prior to that he was "chief Iran analyst" at the International Crisis Group. He is a contributor to BBC TV and ra ...

* Daryl Michael Scott * Diana Senechal *

Jennifer Senior Jennifer Senior is an American journalist, columnist, book critic, and author. She is a staff writer at ''The Atlantic'' and has been an Op-Ed columnist for the ''New York Times'' since September 2018. Previously, she was a columnist and a book cri ...

Judith Shulevitz Judith Anne Shulevitz is an American journalist, editor and culture critic. She has been a columnist for ''Slate'', ''The New York Times Book Review'', and ''The New Republic''. She is a contributing writer for ''The Atlantic''. Career Shulevitz ...

Jesse Singal Jesse Singal is an American journalist. He has written for publications including ''New York'' magazine, ''The New York Times'' and ''The Atlantic''. Singal also publishes a newsletter and hosts the podcast '' Blocked and Reported'' with journa ...

Anne-Marie Slaughter Anne-Marie Slaughter (born September 27, 1958) is an American international lawyer, foreign policy analyst, political scientist, and public commentator. From 2002 to 2009, she was the dean of Princeton University's School of Public and Intern ...

Andrew Solomon Andrew Solomon (born October 30, 1963) is an American writer on politics, culture and psychology, who lives in New York City and London. He has written for ''The New York Times'', ''The New Yorker'', ''Artforum'', '' Travel and Leisure'', and oth ...

Deborah Solomon Deborah Solomon (born August 9, 1957) is an American art critic, journalist and biographer. She writes for ''The New York Times'', where she was previously a columnist. Her weekly column, "Questions For" ran in ''The New York Times Magazine'' fr ...

* Allison Stanger *

Paul Starr Paul Elliot Starr (born May 12, 1949) is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. He is also the co-editor (with Robert Kuttner) and co-founder (with Kuttner and Robert Reich) of ''The American Prospect'', a notable li ...

* Wendell Steavenson *

Nadine Strossen Nadine Strossen (born August 18, 1950) is an American legal scholar and civil liberties activist who served as the president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1991 to 2008. A liberal feminist, she was the first woman to lead the AC ...

Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. Ronald S. Sullivan Jr. (born December 12, 1966, in Gary, Indiana) is a law professor at Harvard Law School. Sullivan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Morehouse College in 1989 and received his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1994. Prior to jo ...

* Kian Tajbakhsh *

Zephyr Teachout Zephyr Rain Teachout (, born October 24, 1971) is an American attorney, author, political candidate, and professor of law specializing in democracy and antitrust at Fordham University. In 2014, Teachout ran for the Democratic Party nomination f ...

* Cynthia Tucker * Adaner Usmani * Chloé Valdary *

Helen Vendler Helen Vendler (née Hennessy; April 30, 1933 – April 23, 2024) was an American academic, writer and literary critic. She was a professor of English language and history at Boston University, Cornell, Harvard, and other universities. Her aca ...

* Judy B. Walzer *

* Eric K. Washington * Caroline Weber *

Randi Weingarten Rhonda "Randi" Weingarten (born December 18, 1957)''Who's Who in America'', 2007. is an American labor leader, attorney, and educator. She has been president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) since 2008, and is a member of the AFL-CIO ...

Bari Weiss Bari Weiss ( ; born March 25, 1984) is an American journalist. She was an op-ed and book review editor at ''The Wall Street Journal'' from 2013 to 2017 and an op-ed staff editor and writer on culture and politics at ''The New York Times'' fro ...

Cornel West Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, theologian, political activist, politician, social critic, and public intellectual. West was an independent candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election and is an ou ...

Sean Wilentz Robert Sean Wilentz (; born February 20, 1951) is an American historian who serves as the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1979. His primary research interests include U.S. ...

Garry Wills Garry Wills (born May 22, 1934) is an American author, journalist, political philosopher, and historian, specializing in American history, politics, and religion, especially the history of the Catholic Church. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Gener ...

Thomas Chatterton Williams Thomas Chatterton Williams (born March 26, 1981) is an American cultural critic and writer.Robert F. Worth *

Molly Worthen Molly Worthen (born 1981) is a journalist and historian of American religion. She is a contributing opinion writer for ''The New York Times'' and a tenured professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Early life and education Rais ...

Matthew Yglesias Matthew Yglesias (; born May 18, 1981) is an American blogger and journalist who writes about economics and politics. Yglesias has written columns and articles for publications such as ''The American Prospect'', ''The Atlantic'', and ''Slate''. I ...

Emily Yoffe Emily J. Yoffe (born October 15, 1955) is an American journalist and contributing writer for ''The Atlantic''. From 1998 to 2016 she was a regular contributor to ''Slate'' magazine, notably as Dear Prudence. She has also written for ''The New Y ...

Cathy Young Catherine Alicia Young (born Yekaterina Jung; ; born February 10, 1963) is a Russian-American journalist. Young is primarily known for her writing about feminism and other cultural issues, as well as about Russia and the former Soviet Union. Sh ...

Reaction

The letter drew mixed reactions on

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

. In an opinion piece for CNN,

John Avlon John Phillips Avlon (born January 19, 1973) is an American journalist and political commentator. He was a senior political analyst and anchor at CNN, and was the editor-in-chief and managing director of ''The Daily Beast'' from 2013 to 2018. P ...

praised the letter, writing, "Demonizing principled disagreement does not advance liberal values—it fuels negative partisan narratives that Trump's reelection depends on. It can distract from actual purveyors of hate, and a sitting President who advances policies that are often racist or homophobic as well as anti-immigrant." In another CNN opinion piece,

Jeff Yang Jeff Yang ( zh, t=楊致和; born ) is an American writer, journalist, businessman, and business/media consultant who writes the ''Tao Jones'' column for ''The Wall Street Journal''. Previously, he was the "Asian Pop" columnist at the ''San Fra ...

criticized the letter, writing, "it's hard not to see the letter as merely an elegantly written affirmation of elitism and privilege", and that the signatories "in the face of resultant backlash, dismissed rebuttals and positioned themselves as beleaguered victims of the current culture, turning their support for open debate and free expression into an example of stark hypocrisy or sly gaslighting." Historian

Nicole Hemmer Nicole Hemmer is an American historian. She is an associate professor of history and director of the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Center for the American Presidency at Vanderbilt University. She specializes in the history of conservative media ...

criticized the letter's timing, saying that the letter primarily blamed cancel culture for disrupting free and open conversations at a moment during the George Floyd protests when it was becoming clearer what influence institutions had in controlling debate. '' Vox'' writer and signatory

faced pushback from

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

coworker Emily St. James, who criticized the letter for being signed by "several prominent anti-trans voices". This included Rowling, who attracted controversy for her comments on transgender issues. A response letter, "A More Specific Letter on Justice and Open Debate", signed by over 160 people in academia and media, critiqued the ''Harper's'' letter as a plea to end

cancel culture Cancel culture is a cultural phenomenon in which an individual thought to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner is ostracized, boycotted, shunned or fired, often aided by social media. This shunning may extend to social or professio ...

by successful professionals with large platforms while excluding others who have been "cancelled for generations". The response included what it claimed were specific incidents in which Black people were silenced by their institutions. Multiple signatories omitted either their names or institutional affiliations, citing fear of "professional retaliation".

Kerri Greenidge Kerri K. Greenidge is an American historian and academic. Her book ''Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter'', a biography of civil rights activist William Monroe Trotter, won the 2020 Mark Lynton History Prize. Her sisters ar ...

later asked for her name to be removed from the ''Harper's'' letter, which was done.

References

External links

A Letter on Justice and Open Debate
''Harper's Magazine'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Letter on Justice and Open Debate, A 2020 controversies in the United States 2020 documents 2020 essays Criticism of Donald Trump Open letters Works originally published in Harper's Magazine Freedom of speech