Their passivity before campus activists has stoked an atmosphere that invites mob violence, chaos, and disrespect for our nation’s foundational rights.
Their passivity before campus activists has stoked an atmosphere that invites mob violence, chaos, and disrespect for our nation’s foundational rights.
D uring the French Revolution, the early leaders who espoused the liberal values embodied in the Declaration of the Rights of Man were, before long, denounced by the more radical forces that they had enabled. The erstwhile revolutionaries were then themselves deemed reactionaries and sent to the guillotine. As a commentator of the time noted, “the revolution devours its children.”
The permissiveness of college administrators in their tolerance for intolerance against free speech on campus has degraded free-speech protections dramatically. Rather than support the civil discourse that makes learning possible, these administrators have allowed the voices of the loudest to drown out reasoned discussion.
As we commemorate Free Speech Week this week, it’s important to remember this: If colleges do not enforce these rules, there are no rules. Instead, the intolerant and aggressive can drown out anyone they disagree with, as exemplified in the numerous student uprisings that happened around the country earlier this year and which could easily happen again.
Several months ago, University of California, Berkeley School of Law dean Erwin Chemerinsky and his wife, law-school professor Catherine Fisk, hosted a gathering of law students at a private dinner in their backyard. What should have been a celebration of the students’ hard work became a contentious scene when pro-Palestinian student protesters disrupted the dinner to voice their displeasure with the latest developments in the Middle East.
As one protester disrupted the event with a microphone, Chemerinsky — who is Jewish — insisted that she leave. As the student continued, Fisk pulled her away, and a heated exchange between the law professors and student protesters ensued. The protesters eventually left, but both sides claimed that the other had violated their freedoms.
As director of the Center for Academic Freedom at Alliance Defending Freedom, I have seen too many similar incidents — from California State University, Los Angeles, to Virginia Commonwealth University, to the University of Pittsburgh. ADF CEO, president, and general counsel Kristen Waggoner was even shouted out of a debate at Yale Law School.
Currently, I am co-counsel in a case involving State University of New York at Binghamton. In 2019, my clients, College Republicans and Young America’s Foundation, invited renowned economist and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Arthur Laffer to give a lecture titled “Trump, Tariffs, and Trade Wars.” While promoting that event days before it took place, College Republicans were mobbed by a group of 200 protesters. When the university police arrived, they refused to disperse the hostile mob but instead removed the College Republicans.
The university knew that several groups planned to disrupt the Laffer speech the following week, yet university administrators chose not to stop the disruption. Instead, they allowed protesters to shout down the speaker with a megaphone and directed Laffer to leave before he had the opportunity to speak.
These colleges — public and private — have explicit policies that prohibit disruption and other violent displays of uncivilized intimidation. By ignoring or encouraging disruptive behavior, campus leaders are betraying their own stated principles and effectively taking a stand against free speech.
Disregarding the rule of law only encourages students to choose tantrums and violence to get their way. And by not taking a strong stance in favor of free speech through enforcing state law and school policies, college officials empower that mob to attack everyone’s civil rights — including their own.
Chemerinsky later planned two similar student events at his house — this time with hired security present. He noted, “Any student who disrupts will be reported to student conduct, and a violation of the student conduct code is reported to the bar.” This approach should prevail across the board with every student or university employee who violently disrupts the peaceful assembly of other students, not just selectively when officials themselves are personally victimized.
With the uniform and certain enforcement of the law, these types of student protests tend to fizzle out. Most of the time, these protesters will choose to forgo their tantrums rather than risk expulsion or jail time.
College officials’ passivity in the face of persistent civil-rights violations by campus activists has stoked an atmosphere that invites mob violence, chaos, and disrespect for our nation’s foundational rights. It is possible for our universities to once again become respectable marketplaces of ideas. But it’s going to require a backbone.