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  • Policing protest speech

    An early version of the First Amendment, labeled Article Four, reads, "The freedom of speech, and of the press, and the right of the people peaceably to assemble and consult for their common good, and to apply to the government ofr a redress of grievances, shall not be infringed.

    An early version of the First Amendment

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Comments

hy0g4001@sneakemail.com Oct 8, 2024 12:09 pm
I have never understood the precise meaning of academic freedom. It is surely different from First Amendment freedom of speech. Congress cannot infringe on the expression of speech favoring fascism, for example. But surely an academic institution can fire, demote, or expel a faculty member who openly expresses the view that "Hitler didn't finish the job and social hygiene requires exterminating all the Jews left on Earth"? (Hypothetical, I hope.) Must a college expend its limited resources providing a platform for those fundamentally out of sympathy with the mission of the institution? I realize the difference between "expression" and "action," between my criticizing you and my shooting you, requires line-drawing, which can be difficult. But assuming the line has been drawn, shouldn't some things clearly on the "expression" side of the line be proper and permissible bases for discrimination? For example, if a faculty member got up at a faculty meeting and said that he thought all non-progressive faculty members should be slaughtered and replaced with progressive faculty members. "I would never participate in the purification process myself, but I would rejoice if courageous students or anyone else did the necessary work, surreptitiously if that would let them get away with it." Would "academic freedom" allow the firing of the "outspoken" faculty members for his views?
Reply to hy0g4001@sneakemail.com at 12:09 pm