REAL FREE SPEECH
From the lead editorial in today's Philadelphia Inquirer:
Since the beginning, America has struggled with the concept of free speech. It's a great idea in the abstract. But when reality hits - when free speech alarms, threatens and offends - the temptation is to rein it in. But then it's not free speech anymore.
Universities have become prime places to witness this free speech dilemma. Virtually all institutions of higher learning today declare devotion to free speech and encourage students from diverse backgrounds to express themselves in equal measure.
At the same time - as if terrified all this free speaking might cross too many boundaries - universities also routinely have instituted codes of conduct reining in expression and actions that some groups might find offensive.
Shippensburg University in south-central Pennsylvania had a code that hammered free speech down to a nubbin: Students had a "right to express a personal belief system" but only if the expression did not "demean," "annoy" or "alarm" others. The university was for freedom, but only if it was not "inflammatory or harmful."
In other words, you can say what you want - so long as it doesn't bother a single other person.
Note that Shippensburg "had" these policies.
A feisty organization called the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education took Shippensburg to court. Lawyers for that Philadelphia-based group argued the university's policies violated students' rights to free speech, and U.S. District Court Judge John E. Jones III agreed. The judge said the university's policies could have a "chilling" effect on student expression.
Read the whole thing and learn more about FIRE here. I'm proud to be a member of their board of directors.