Over 100 Yale Law School students staged a raucous protest that resulted in police escorting forum panelists from the building at the conclusion of the event. The forum featured representatives from the progressive American Humanist Association and the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom that advocates for religious liberty. (The Washington Free Beacon, March 16, 2022, by Aaron Sibarium)
Megan McArdle of The Washington Post, March 19, 2022, writes “The Yale Law students who tried to exercise a ‘heckler’s veto’ have literally demonstrated that they will not only refuse to listen to someone whose views they find disagreeable but also try to prevent anyone else from listening either. That’s radically at odds with the values our court system is supposed to uphold, such as viewpoint neutrality.” As a way out of the polarization on free speech issues, she suggests that there be a ” no first use” policy, that your right to speak is dependent on your willingness to let others speak.
University of North Texas administrators found they could be liable for violating a professor’s free speech rights for firing him over a chalkboard message critical of the idea of microaggressions. (The Ohio Star, March 21, 2022, by Admin)
A dean at San Diego State University elicited heated responses from conservative whom she castigated for a tweet on the right wing that read in part, “…racism good, abortion bad, money good, women bad, capitalism good, sustainability bad, stupidity good, science bad….” Monica Casper said she was not writing as a dean but regretted that the tweet had repercussions for the university. (Inside Higher Education, January 31, 2022, by Scott Jaschik)
A recent survey showed that colleges students value free speech as a bulwark to democracy but an increasing number fear that freedom of speech is not secure. The number of Republican students who think free speech is secure declined by 25 points between 2019 (52 percent) and 2021 (27 percent). (NBC News, January 30, 2022, by Dante Chinni)
A law professor at the University of Illinois Chicago is suing the school after he was punished for including a hypothetical question in an exam in which an employer called his employee a “n_____’ and ‘b____.’ (Just the News, January 28, 2022, by Greg Piper)
A college professor fired for mocking Mike Pence on Twitter settled with Collin College for $70,000 and her attorney’s fees. (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, January 25, 2022, press release)