 Later, at UC Berkeley, he became the first tenured professor to join the 1964–1965 Free Speech Movement.In the late 1980s, Searle challenged the restrictions of Berkeley's 1980 rent stabilization ordinance.Following what came to be known as the California Supreme Court's "Searle Decision" of 1990, Berkeley changed its rent control policy, leading to large rent increases between 1991 and 1994.