Where does Sen. Lummis stand on freedom of speech?
FROM WYOFILE:
After the Wyoming senator told a reporter last week her feelings had changed about the First Amendment, Lummis says her position hasn’t shifted at all.
Wyoming U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis has made national headlines for reportedly changing the way she feels about freedom of speech, but her office disputes that characterization.
“Under normal times, in normal circumstances, I tend to think that the First Amendment should always be sort of the ultimate right. And that there should be almost no checks and balances on it. I don’t feel that way anymore,” Lummis told Semafor, a digital news site, last week.
The senator’s comments followed the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s TV show after the late-night comedian commented on Charlie Kirk’s accused assassin. Disney, ABC’s parent company, removed Kimmel from the air after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr publicly threatened investigations and regulatory action.
Ahead of ABC’s Monday announcement that Kimmel would return to the air this week, Lummis weighed in, telling Semafor that “an FCC license, it’s not a right. It really is a privilege.”
Like many members of the GOP, Lummis has often championed free speech.
“There are no ifs, ands or buts about the First Amendment and it is time for @POTUS and unelected bureaucrats in D.C. to abide by the Constitution,” Lummis posted on X on July 25, 2023.
At the time, she and Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky introduced the Free Speech Protection Act, “to prohibit federal employees and contractors from directing platforms to censor any speech that is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” according to the bill text.
The legislation was in response to a lawsuit brought by attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri against the Biden administration. The federal government carried out a far-reaching censorship campaign, according to the complaint, in its efforts to convince social media companies to address postings related to COVID-19. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the case.
“I take the protection of the privacy and individual liberties of the people of Wyoming extremely serious,” Lummis wrote in a July 21, 2023 press release. “If we let the Biden administration restrict our freedom of speech, there is no telling what other sacred freedoms they will come for next.”
Circumstances have changed, Lummis told Semafor last week.
“I feel like something’s changed culturally. And I think that there needs to be some cognizance that things have changed,” Lummis said. “We just can’t let people call each other those kinds of insane things and then be surprised when politicians get shot and the death threats they are receiving and then trying to get extra money for security.”
Asked to provide more of an explanation as to what caused Lummis to change her position on the First Amendment, Joe Jackson, a spokesman for the senator, asked WyoFile to print the following statement in full.
“Senator Lummis’s position hasn’t shifted at all. She remains among Congress’ most vocal First Amendment champions. The First Amendment applies to federal and state governments and does not prevent private companies from firing employees who endorse and cheer political assassinations. The Left enthusiastically supported Biden’s censorship regime and stayed quiet when Democrats branded their rivals as Nazis. But when Senator Lummis criticizes Democrats for their inflammatory rhetoric that promotes violence, they suddenly act like they care about free speech. This double standard is precisely why nobody believes them,” the statement read.
In a follow-up, WyoFile asked if Lummis could clarify what she meant by “I don’t feel that way anymore” in her comments to Semafor. “Her point was we can’t normalize speech that incites this level of violence,” Jackson responded.
The “insane things” people say and call each other are protected by the First Amendment, Jackson wrote.
“However, we must recognize the drastic consequences and violence from the Left its resulting in. In this case, the murder of a young husband and father,” Jackson wrote. “The media is working overtime to try and mischaracterize her comments instead of focusing on the real issue: leftwing political violence.”
Some GOP senators, however, have raised concerns about FCC pressure on ABC, including Sen. Paul, the co-sponsor with Lummis on the Free Speech Protection Act. He told Meet the Press on Sunday that Carr had “no business weighing in on this.”
While people could get fired for making “despicable comments,” Paul said, the government should not pressure companies to take action.
“The government’s got no business in it. And the FCC was wrong to weigh in. And I’ll fight any attempt by the government to get involved with speech,” Paul said.
On his podcast Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said he was “thrilled” to see Kimmel’s show taken off the air, but called Carr’s actions “dangerous as hell.”
Cruz, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, which has oversight authority over the FCC, said it “will end up bad for conservatives.”
“They will silence us,” he said. “They will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly.”
WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
This story was posted on Sept. 22, 2025.