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A blizzard and holiday travel delays could not stop FIREfrom fighting for liberty during 2010's final week.

The University of Virginia's (UVa's) meteoric ascent from a red-light to green-light institution resurfaced in the news Wednesday when Valerie Strauss of The Washington Post for her blog The Answer Sheet about UVa's elimination of four policies that had restricted free speech on campus. She also cited the persistently high percentage (67%) of red-light schools remaining in the country, taken from our recently issued annual report on speech codes, Spotlight on Speech Codes 2011: The State of Free Speech on Our Nation's Campuses.

Tim Johnson also mentions our Spotlight report in his for the Burlington Free Press about the University of Vermont's yellow-light rating and Middlebury College's red-light rating. He cites the specific policies that have led FIREto rate these institutions as such, and quotes Samantha's analysis of Middlebury's particularly chilling "Anti-Harassment Policy," as well as the Middlebury "Community Standards."

Most Torch readers will know that last week FIREsent out a certified mailing to the presidents and top lawyers at nearly 300 public colleges and universities across the nation, warning them that the defense of qualified immunity could no longer be relied upon to shield them and their staff from having to pay monetary damages out of their own pockets for blatantly violating students' free speech rights. Bob Unruh quoted our mailing extensively in his for WorldNetDaily. Additionally, after Robert wrote a in Pajamas Media that drew further attention to our mailing, Glenn Reynolds on Instapundit.com and wisely suggested that people make an .

Speaking of donations, Rand Simberg of Transterrestrial Musings that FIREremained at the top of his list of , characterizing us as cultural warriors fighting to protect freedom from the grasps of college administrators who wish to roll back the advances humans made during the Enlightenment. (I've always fancied myself as something of a knight for liberty, so I'm glad that someone else finally feels the same way.) Additionally, J. DeVoy of The Legal Satyricon eight of ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s academic publications in his short blog post advocating for people to donate to ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½.

The Legal Satyricon also Popehat's comical (covered in last week's media blog) further ridiculing the investigation of alleged blogger Len Audaer at Syracuse University College of Law (SUCOL). The Legal Satyricon even denounced the idea of giving job interviews to SUCOL graduates who don't publicly speak out against SUCOL's investigation of Audaer! (Note: The blogger uses much more colorful language in his .) Naturally, the blog post ends with a suggestion that people .

Campus Legal Advisor, a print publication aimed at higher ed attorneys, wrote up ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s Smith v. Tarrant County College District court case in its January 2011 edition. Torch readers may remember that FIREpartnered with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and attorney Karin Cagle to win a lawsuit that forced Tarrant County College not only to allow students to protest with empty holsters on campus, but also to dissolve the restrictive free speech zone policy used to limit student rights on campus.

Finally, Todd Zywicki ¹û¶³´«Ã½app¹Ù·½'s work on The Volokh Conspiracy by linking to Azhar's blog post about all of our law review articles from the past two years and FIRE's interview with Dave Barry, as well as Valerie Strauss' on UVa.

That's all for 2010, so on behalf of the entire FIREstaff: Happy New Year and keep fighting for liberty!