The College Fix

Sept. 17, 2015

Dear American People,

It’s my birthday. 228 years. I can hardly believe it. I know you’re planning some little soirée in DC to celebrate me, but most of you don’t even know it’s my birthday. And, quite honestly, I’m more than just concerned. You’ve been giving my First Amendment the brush-off recently, especially on college campuses, and that means fewer people are respecting me.

There is news that today—my birthday!—the University of California Board of Regents is voting on whether to enact new rules that would establish a so-called “right” to be free from “expressions of intolerance.” What does that even mean? And isn’t this the same university system where the Free Speech Movement started? I liked that movement, but not this.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, some of you pushed the idea that we all needed to be more “politically correct” and sensitive. I laughed at the time because it seemed so antithetical to our country’s embrace of free speech. But over time, I became worried.

Soon some of you couldn’t resist codifying these politically-correct ideals as campus speech codes. Many public universities adopted these codes and banned “offensive” or “uncivil” speech. So much for the “marketplace of ideas” that they claimed to be.

Thankfully, some of you, especially some brave students, understood that campus speech codes violated my First Amendment, and went to court. I’m glad to say that I won—in every case. (I am the supreme law of the land after all.)

Years passed, and I thought you learned your lesson. I was wrong.

Now, I see campus administrators and students—even faculty—issuing “trigger warnings” any time something occurs on campus that might offend someone. A class is going to read Huck Finn? Trigger warning! A conservative speaker is on campus? Trigger warning! Pro-life students share facts about abortion? Trigger warning!

You even claim that the discussion of some questions, like “Where are you from?” are discriminatory “micro-aggressions” against certain groups. Suddenly, the speech codes of the 90s seem tame.

More than half of America’s colleges have a policy that restricts student or faculty speech and that violate me. And by the looks of things in California, you’re not finished.

Finally—and this really gets me—some colleges are kicking student groups off campus because the groups want to associate freely around shared beliefs. Don’t you see how that violates my First Amendment? Apparently not, since you seem to want atheists leading Bible studies and Republicans leading meetings of the College Democrats.

You’re wondering what I want for my birthday. Well, I’m going to be straight with you this year: Stop trying to enact laws and policies that violate my First Amendment. I want you to get along and embrace the freedom to speak, especially on college campuses. If you don’t, where will that leave us as a society?

So, yeah, happy birthday to me. But how many more will I have if you keep trampling my rights?

The Constitution

David Hacker is senior legal counsel and head of university litigation for Alliance Defending Freedom.

IMAGE: Shutterstock

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter