The Volokh Conspiracy

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent

Free Speech

Prof. Glenn Harlan Reynolds (Tennessee) on Speech at Universities

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From his Instapundit Substack post:

So the shocking pro-genocide/pro-Palestinian marches at top Ivy League schools have put their administrations into a pretty pickle.  They want to escape responsibility for student speech, but their efforts to plead "free speech" ring hollow, when they've been eagerly policing student—and faculty—speech for years….

But as much as I enjoy seeing these people stew in the juices of their hypocrisy—and believe me, enjoy it I do—it is nonetheless true … that free speech principles, and the First Amendment where it applies, prevent things like a selective ban on anti-semitism, or on "advocacy of genocide" or whatever.

The proposals by various critics to regulate campus speech in response are a bad idea, though there is one upside: The strong support for campus free speech that used to exist was basically developed as a tool to protect leftists on campus from populist or conservative retribution. Perhaps this will have a similar effect.

He goes on to offer a substantial, varied, and ambitious list of proposed remedies.