Op-Ed: When a Berkeley Law debate on free speech got turned into a social media circus

The great complexity of free speech issues on campus was revealed this semester at Berkeley Law. How are the free speech rights of a student group to not invite speakers with particular views to be balanced against the desire to have all viewpoints expressed and have no one feel excluded?

There was a brief flurry of media attention, but the issue quickly faded. Within the law school conversations continued about how best to balance free speech rights with maintaining a culture of mutual respect and diversity of opinion.“Berkeley Develops Jewish-Free Zones.” Of course, student groups can decide what speakers to include based on their views. Obviously, a college Republicans’ group could decide only to invite conservative speakers. To require student groups to invite speakers of views they loathe would violate the 1st Amendment as a form of compelled speech.

This is not to deny that the effect of the bylaw, if it were followed, would be to exclude many Jewish speakers and would make Jewish students uncomfortable being part of some groups. That is why I condemned it. I wish student groups would not adopt such policies, but a public university cannot prohibit them.

What started as an internal matter, where we were deepening the conversation among our students, faculty and staff about an enormously difficult issue and about how best to support one another, now requires our campus public safety professionals to monitor threats and provide security support for our targeted students. Not only has the marketplace of ideas failed to generate accurate discussions of our situation, it has created a truly dangerous environment.

opinion The author is so quick to want to break bread with the very people that hate him and his entire religion/ethnicity.

opinion Free Speech has been misinterpreted by certain groups, and excluding speakers seems to be a violation of First Amendment Rights.

opinion No easy path? Free speech is the only path. It’s not difficult.

opinion A

opinion

opinion

opinion Free speech* * 'It's ok when we do it but not them!'

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