First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams spoke out against recent trends of student opposition and protest to speakers that led to cancellation of events and visitors on campuses.
Abrams spoke at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Tuesday night about free speech and intellect on college campuses nationwide. Abrams has been a prominent defender of First Amendment rights for decades. In 1971, Abrams represented the New York Times in the Supreme Court Pentagon Papers case.
On Tuesday, Abrams called recent trends “anti-free speech activism” where student opposition or violent protests prevented people from speaking on campuses. He said it is problematic to prohibit certain speakers because of their ideology.
As an advocate for First Amendment rights, Abrams discussed the trend as a new potential threat to freedom of speech today on college campuses.
This is an issue on campuses nationwide with a few notable cases which Abrams discussed, such as University of California Berkeley. Back in February 2017, the university had to cancel a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos, a right-wing speaker, after violence broke out by protesters.
Berkeley again had to cancel a speech by Ann Coulter in April, which many thought demonstrated Berkeley was showing intolerance to the conservative viewpoint.
This free speech activism is mostly targeted against right-wing figures, which Abrams said represent an “anti-intellectualism on the left.” Abrams said protesters shutting down events based on their unwillingness to hear different viewpoints prevents a full range of free speech on college campuses.
“Education shouldn’t make people comfortable,” Joseph Russomanno, Cronkite school associate professor and moderator at the event, said. “It should make them think.”
Abrams said this is because young people are more intolerable to freedom of speech if that speech is harmful. Russomanno cites a recent poll taken that said millennials are more willing to restrict free speech than other generations.
“We are seeing more and more of a sense…of students caring about each other and wanting to help their fellow students from being pained by speech,” Abrams said.
Abrams cited Notre Dame’s commencement last spring when about 100 students walked out in protest when Vice President Mike Pence gave his speech. Abrams praised these students for using their right to protest to get their message across.
Abrams said the problem is that by prohibiting controversial people from speaking on campuses, these students are infringing on others’ right of free speech. Abrams also said a better way to voice one’s disagreement is through peaceful protest.
“One thing freedom of speech protects is the right to protest against someone else’s speech,” Abrams said. “So long as the protest is expressed in a manner that does not deprive others of the chance to hear and pass upon what is said.”
Abrams said that going forward, universities cannot determine which speakers are and are not acceptable to speak at their colleges. He also said universities must protect freedom of speech on campus despite opposition from students, even if that means hiring security for controversial speakers.
“We’re going to wind up, I fear, needing more security in advance of controversial speakers than has ever been the case,” Abrams said.
Elise Stahl, a freshman at the Cronkite school, found this remark particularly interesting and said she “thinks that it says something about our generation, that we not only want to protect ourselves from offense, but we also want to protect others.”
“In this day and age, we have a lot more diverse friendships and diverse connections in our lives, and we really want to protect that, even if it’s at the cost of free speech,” Stahl said.
Contact the reporter at Devan.Sauer@asu.edu.
