Cancelling Disagreeable Speech Is Anti Speech
By Bob Small
Article 1 of the Bill of Rights, often misquoted, states “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peacefully to assemble”.
This is not an agreement by the rest of us, though it should be, whether for DT, or GLBT, or RT, etc
On March 10, there was a to be a bipartisan panel on civil liberties, hosted by the Yale Federalist Society, featuring Monica Miller, of the progressive AHS ( American Humanist Society) , which supports the rights of atheists and battled with the American Legion, etc.) and Kristen Waggoner of the ADF (Alliance Defending Freedom). ADF is pro-Life, pro-marriage, pro freedom of religion (at least for Christians) and are seen by some as being anti-GLBT, etc.Though the event did proceed to the end, there were some eventus interruptus.
FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), which has a Conservative bent, feels that, essentially, the forum was prevented from happening, in it’s intended format.
Fire notes that forcing the cancellation of speech you disagree with isn’t free speech.
David Lat, from Original Jurisdiction, has a more nuanced view. “The protesters were disruptive at the start of the event, both inside the classroom and after they repaired to the hallway . . .they did calm down (eventually) and they did not succeed in canceling the Yale event, which moved forward to completion.”
He later amends this to indicate there was a level of “disruption”.
Is free speech in American Law Schools a lost Cause?
John Sexton in Hot Air seems to try and take both sides.
Mark Joseph Stern of Slate Magazine feels that the Washington Free Beacon article by Aaron Sibarium regarding Judge Laurence Silberman’s desire for judges to blacklist all participants in the disruption overstates the case.
Lastly, I’ll mention Angus Johnston of Left Wing Rolling Stone and his 2015 article There’s No College P.C. Crisis: In Defense of Student Protesters
Johnston quotes Frederick Douglas saying “sometimes, it is not light that is not needed, but fire”.
A couple thoughts on this. Why would YLS members prevent people from hearing Monica Miller?! If you use Duck Duck Go and type in free speech at Yale and in defense of Yale student protest, you will get various opinions. including crooks and liars.com, reason.com, Washington Post, and yale.edu. Lastly thanks to Scott from Vermont for the Fire article which began the search.
The Constitution was written for adults. We are no longer a society of adults; at least, a majority of people is made up of people who are mentally and emotionally adolescents, and they behave that way.
An adult understands the concept of freedom of speech, accepting that there are ideas he disagrees with, and that people have every right to express those ideas.
An overgrown adolescent throws a tantrum when he hears or sees something he disagrees with. He burns down neighborhoods, harasses people, assaults people, tears down statues, renames streets, buildings, sports franchises, etc, etc.
That’s what underlies Franklin’s famous remark, “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.”
If you can keep it. A society of adults can. A society of petulant adolescents cannot.