How Homeland Security’s subpoenas and databases of protesters threaten the ‘uninhibited, robust, and wide-open’ free speech protected by Supreme Court precedent

It’s difficult to measure what is lost when an opinion is never voiced and impossible to catalogue the arguments that never form because a speaker calculates the risk and decides silence is safer.

By: Stephanie A. (Sam) Martin, Boise State University, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: February 23, 2026

Words: 1,364

Last Updated: 4 hours, 26 minutes ago

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is reportedly issuing administrative subpoenas to identify anonymous social media accounts that criticize U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Google, Meta and Reddit have complied with at least some of those requests, according to The New York Times.

These subpoenas appear alongside other recent steps by the Trump administration aimed at clamping down on its critics.

In Minneapolis and Chicago, ICE agents told protesters their faces were being …

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