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by robertpateii 3406 days ago
It's good they're talking about this. But I'm surprised there's no mention of the "more speech" quote, how old this issue is, and how clearly the solution has been declared by the supreme court over the years (discussion not silence).

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence." -- Justice Brandeis, 1927.

I'd never read the whole opinion until just now. It's great and the paragraph that quote comes from is stirring. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/274/357#pg_377

edit\addendum: ACLU has a FAQ on this issue that directly addresses the universities: https://www.aclu.org/other/hate-speech-campus

2 comments

Many people seem to have forgotten about the Nazis vs. Village of Skokie case from the 70's. The Nazis were defended by the ACLU. This idea that "hate speech" isn't protected by the 1st amendment is a weird development that has no basis in law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Party_of_Am...

This is maybe orthogonal to the point, but i receive more than a little bed-time satisfaction by reading supreme court decisions. Those judges ain't dummies!
Definitely! You'll probably appreciate this podcast if you haven't already heard it: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolabmoreperfect