The Volokh Conspiracy

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Free Speech

"LSU Professor Vows to 'Drop' Students on 'Hate Speech' List"

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Fox News (Caleb Parke) reports:

Louisiana professor called on her colleagues to keep a list of students who engage in "hate speech" and "drop" them from classes at the public university after George Floyd's death, Campus Reform reports….

Another professor in Johnson's department, LSU Associate Professor William T. Doerrler, responded to another deleted tweet, writing: "Thank you!! If he enrolls in my class I'll drop him too!" …

Katlyn Patton of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is quoted in the story as responding, "Faculty members at public institutions properly possess the academic freedom to guide discussions within their classrooms, but they cannot refuse to teach students simply because they disagree with their extramural speech or views." That is exactly right.

This appears to be the relevant tweet:

As to LSU's tweet to which the professor was responding, it looks like they later started walking back the "constitutional limitation," though it's not completely clear:

LSU, in a series of tweets, apologized for "not effectively" communicating the school's "core message" and said officials met with "Black student leaders to pledge again that LSU will investigate and take action against all acts of racism, hostility, harassment and intimidation by students under our code of conduct. We will hold violators accountable."