First Amendment Protection on Campus

A voice is waiting for me
To set it free
I got the key
I got the key
--Russ Ballard

This week President Trump signed an executive order aimed at protecting free speech on college campuses. The order threatens to pull federal funding from colleges that do not uphold those rights.

This order is directed at movements on college campuses to suppress speech deemed unpleasant by some students, administrators, or external resource providers. Those movements restrain communication of alternative viewpoints necessary for seeing various sides of an issue and for developing critical thought processes (perhaps the ultimate goal of higher ed).

Opponents of Trump's order claim that colleges are not free speech forums but learning institutions, and these institutions must set norms about how learning should take place. These norms may, at times, limit speech for the sake of learning.

Nice try, but few things challenge critical minds more so than views that run counter to orthodoxy and fall outside the comfort level of everyday norms. Free speech forums--not safe spaces--are vital for learning.

The First Amendment specifies that the federal government shall make no laws abridging the freedom of speech. When speech takes place in public places, such as on college campuses that have received public funding, then no laws, rules, regulations, et al. can rightfully prevent speech from freely occurring. In fact, government is obligated to ensure a speaker's right to speak and his/her audience's right to hear. President Trump is fulfilling that obligation.

However, the president has no standing to uphold free speech in private college contexts. Under principles of private property, owners of private schools can manage speech as they choose and have the right to physically remove those who violate the rules. 

The implication, of course, is that those schools not wishing to preserve the First Amendment can do so simply by removing their hands from public coffers.