I've got tons of issues with Harvard because of the large role they've had in helping to create our #ClimateCrisis but I'm really glad that they stood up to the Republicans' war on free speech by not firing their president after that gotcha question in Congress last week.
I think what many of those people said is disgusting, but just like when the white supremacists show up on campuses our first amendment protects even the most disgusting speech.
@GreenFire Right, but Harvard is a private university, not a public institution, so the first amendment doesn't really apply.
That said, I agree with you that it's nice to see they have a backbone and won't sacrifice their own to the GOP culture war.
@LouisIngenthron
You're mistaken since even though Harvard is a private university, they receive federal funding.
@GreenFire Doesn't matter. Lots of private companies get federal funding, but that doesn't mean they're required to host speech they disagree with. 1A restricts only government actors.
@LouisIngenthron
Yes, our First Amendment applies only to government entities, which includes public college and universities. The rules around free speech on private universities’ campuses are a little more complicated. If a private institution voluntarily declares free speech protection, as has Harvard, than it is bound by that promise.
Some state laws also provide protection for student speech, and at times for student press freedom, even at private colleges.
@GreenFire No, an institution cannot lose their constitutional rights by "voluntarily declaring" so. (If they could, Texas would have used that against women by now.)
They may choose to emulate those standards of free speech, but they aren't legally bound to do so.
@LouisIngenthron
Students at private colleges have contractual relationships with their schools. The specific terms of those relationships are generally found in materials like student handbooks and the college’s written disciplinary procedures. If a school attempts to discipline a student for conduct not covered in its handbook, the student may have a claim for breach of conduct.
https://splc.org/know-your-rights-massachusetts/
@GreenFire Correct, that's a private agreement that can be enforced civilly, not a constitutional right enforced by the government.
@LouisIngenthron
Which made the university's president's answer to Stefanik correct since a school would not to be held civilly liable for a breach of conduct over speech.
To assert that these rules are not derived from our first amendment seems disingenuous and nit-picky, but whatever.
@GreenFire Well, they're not. Those same codes of conduct you cited above tend to specify which speech the student cannot exercise on campus, even if such speech would otherwise be protected under 1A in public.
I.e. most colleges prohibit hate speech on their property, despite such speech being protected under 1A.
@GreenFire Right... at public universities.
Private colleges aren't beholden to the same rules. Which is why Christian colleges can restrict pro-choice and pro-LGBTQ rhetoric.
@LouisIngenthron
I didn't spend my career in the Ivory Tower focused on free speech issues related to schools since our climate crisis was too pressing, but I think that there's a major difference between secular and religious schools.
@GreenFire Not legally. A private school is a private school.
@LouisIngenthron
I have no idea where you get the information from that you're basing your opinion on, but whatever.
In the 1990s, over 300 colleges and universities adopted codes intended to restrict hate speech. Recognizing that hate speech cannot be restricted without censoring ideas or punishing people for their political views, courts almost always found these codes unconstitutional.
https://thehill.com/opinion/education/4317052-what-the-vexed-history-of-campus-hate-speech-codes-teaches-us-about-fighting-antisemitism/