At Yale Law, the American mind is closed - New York Daily News

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I am well aware of how speakers on college campuses have been heckled and shouted down by protesters in recent years. The nonprofit advocacy group I work for, Alliance Defending Freedom, has even litigated some of these cases. When the Federalist Society chapter at Yale Law School invited me to discuss a noncontroversial free speech win at the Supreme Court, I hoped for an engaging discussion with the next generation of leading legal minds. Instead, I was met by a frenzied mob of nearly 120 students hurling insults, making obscene gestures and looking to physically intimidate others. And Yale isn’t doing much about it.

The video obtained from the event actually captured the least volatile moment with the students. Multiple audio clips reveal a fuller story. As the event ended, I was told to exit the classroom as soon as possible, and law enforcement escorted me to a police car.

I was there with American Humanist Association attorney Monica Miller, who wrote one of the 22 friend-of-the-court briefs from across the ideological spectrum in our case Uzuegbunam vs. Preczewski, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in our clients’ favor 8–1. That case, ironically, involved a college student who had his speech silenced by school officials who also tried to escape responsibility.

Miller hit the nail on the head after the event: “As lawyers, we have to put aside our differences and talk to opposing counsel. If you can’t talk to your opponents, you can’t be an effective advocate.” Yet these students didn’t care to listen, only to shut us down.

I have to reiterate that this wasn’t just any mob; these were law school students at one of the nation’s top-rated law school. I was alarmed seeing future attorneys, judges, advocates, legislators and corporate executives behaving this way — with one saying she would “literally fight you, b---h,” rather than choosing to engage with me or my ideas. It’s not a good look when a well-loved law professor has to tell students to “grow up.” Exceptional lawyers must engage in critical thinking, intellectual curiosity and clear and persuasive advocacy with civility. Or, as Ruth Bader Ginsburg once put it, “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”

What also concerns me is that this is far from an isolated event. Americans everywhere — not just college or law-school students — are starting to test the limits of how far they can go with belligerence instead of civility. And too many of our leaders are letting it slide. When political commentator Bari Weiss saw news of Yale law students acting like a mob, she noted, “This is happening because of an epidemic of cowardice among the people meant to be leading these elite schools.”

The fact that Yale hasn’t condemned this behavior should concern all of us. If Yale and other educational institutions continue to bow to the demands of the mob, we will lose our culture of free speech and civil dialogue. Just like the school officials in the Supreme Court case I was there to discuss, Yale officials are exhibiting cowardice by trying to escape responsibility for refusing to enforce their own policy on free expression, which states that Yale is “committed to fostering an environment that values the free expression of ideas.”

According to that policy, “the exercise of free expression on campus is subject to three general conditions: 1) access to a university event or facility may not be blocked; 2) a university event, activity, or its regular or essential operations may not be disrupted; and 3) safety may not be compromised.” Speakers are “generally free to express their views, even if unpopular or controversial.” Students that disagree “may protest and express disagreement, but they may not interfere with a speaker’s ability to speak or attendees’ ability to attend, listen and hear.”

Yale administrators must restore a culture of free speech on campus. They must show students that good lawyers engage with people and ideas they dislike and that, while protests have their place, menacing behavior is never acceptable.

source: https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-american-mind-yale-law-free-speech-20220322-gqoide27abh4dhczatquyerhhi-story.html

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