Heckler's Veto and Speech Codes Threaten Free Speech at Universities

Now, even a hint of vocal opposition to a speaker seems to be enough to eliminate the possibility of that speaker being heard.

(WASHINGTON DC) - Americans used to frequently quote Voltaire's declaration that, "I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it." That is no longer the case at too many of our colleges and universities.

What some have called the "heckler's veto" has been one factor limiting free speech. Nat Hentoff once pointed out that, "First Amendment law is clear that everyone has the right to picket a speaker, and to go inside a hall and heckle him or her---but not to drown out the speaker, let alone rush the stage and stop the speech before it starts. That's called the 'heckler's veto.'"

Now, even a hint of vocal opposition to a speaker seems to be enough to eliminate the possibility of that speaker being heard.

Recently, two respected individuals who were invited to be commencement speakers at Johns Hopkins University and Swarthmore College withdrew in the face of opposition from some vocal students.

In the case of Swarthmore, Robert Zoellick, an alumnus and former president of the World Bank, accepted and then turned down an invitation, after students objected to his support of the Iraq war and his record at the World Bank.

Zoellick, an official in George W. Bush's administration, withdrew after students started a campaign on Facebook calling him "an architect of the Iraq war" and a "war criminal." In fact, while Zoellick did support the war, he had no role in planning it. He was Bush's U.S. trade representative and later worked to resolve the conflict in Darfur as a State Department official. He ran the World Bank from 2007 until 2012.

As the attacks on Zoellick grew, Swarthmore's student paper, the Daily Gazette, mocked the political correctness which characterized the controversy. On April Fool's Day, it wrote that the school "would not be offering degrees to any member of the Class of 2013 who does not plan to found a vegan coffee shop after graduation," calling other professional choices "antithetical to Swarthmore values."

In the case of Johns Hopkins, Dr. Ben Carson, the world-renowned Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon, withdrew as commencement speaker after controversy over his statement in opposition to gay marriage, in which he lumped homosexuality with pedophilia and bestiality, for which he later apologized twice. He said he withdrew because, "My presence is likely to distract from the true celebratory nature of the day. Commencement is about the students and their successes, and it is not about me."

Josh Wheeler, director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression at the University of Virginia, notes that, "Overall, there seems to be an increased sensitivity to things in the past we might have let roll off our backs. Nowadays, people aren't afraid to express their objections, which isn't a bad thing, but people are more willing to censor (speech) to remove the offending speech or language."

Wheeler calls this phenomenon the "heckler's veto," the ability of a small but vocal group to limit the choices of a much larger majority. He argues that, "We shouldn't ignore (protest) but at the same time to allow a minority to determine what we see or hear is very concerning from a free-speech point of view. Too often, it's easier to eliminate the problem than deal with the controversy."

Many public figures -----with a variety of points of views----have been treated in a similar manner. Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin faced protests from students and controversy over her fees when she was invited to speak at California State University-Stanislaus in 2010, but she went ahead with her appearance. There were weeks of protest by anti-abortion advocates preceding President Obama's commencement address at Notre Dame University in 2010. In April, protests flared at Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law after it gave its "International Advocate for Peace Award" to former President Jimmy Carter. Some alumni called on the school's graduates to withdraw their financial support to protest Carter's criticism of Israel.

In March 2006, in violation of its own policies, New York University refused to allow a student group to show the controversial Danish cartoons of Mohammed at a public event. Even though the purpose of the event was to show and discuss the cartoons, an administrator suddenly ordered the students either not to display them or to exclude 150 off-campus guests from attending. "NYU's actions are inexcusable," declared Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights In Education (FIRE). "The very purpose of this event is to discuss the cartoons that are at the center of a global controversy. To say that students cannot show them if they wish to engage anyone outside the NYU community is both chilling and absurd. The fact that expression might provoke a strong reaction is a reason to protect it, not an excuse to punish it."

Lukianoff declared that, "This is a classic case of the heckler's veto. NYU is shamelessly clamping down on an event purely out of fear that people who disagree with the viewpoints expressed may disrupt it."

Beyond the heckler's veto, many universities have adopted speech codes to suppress speech that others find offensive. Alan Charles Kors and Harvey Silverglate, in their work "The Shadow University" (1998), refer to a number of cases where speech codes have been used by universities to suppress academic freedom, as well as freedom of speech.

In one case they describe, the so-called "water buffalo" incident at the. University of Pennsylvania, a freshman faced expulsion when he called African-American sorority members who were making substantial amounts of noise and disturbing his sleep during the middle of the night, "water buffalo" (the charged student claimed not to intend discrimination, as the individual in question spoke the modern Hebrew language and the term "water buffalo" or "behema" in modern Hebrew, is slang for a rude of disturbing person. Moreover, water buffalo are native to Asia rather than Africa). Some saw the statement as racist while others simply saw it as a general insult. The college eventually dropped the charge, amid national criticism.

Texas Tech had a speech code which prohibited "insults," "ridicule," and "personal attacks" and restricted free speech to a 20 foot diameter gazebo referred to as a "Free Speech Zone."

In Sept. 2012, Christopher Newport University in Virginia forbade students to protest an appearance by Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential candidate. Students must apply 10 days in advance to demonstrate in the college's tiny "free speech zone"----and Ryan's visit was announced on a Sunday---two days before his Tuesday visit.

In a study of 392 campus speech codes, FIRE found 65 per cent of colleges had policies "that in our view violated the Constitution's guarantee of free speech."

Incoming Harvard freshmen were pressured by campus officials to sign an oath promising to act with "civility" and "inclusiveness" and affirming that "kindness holds a place on par with intellectual attainment." Harry R. Lewis, a computer science professor and former dean of Harvard College, said: "For Harvard to 'invite' people to pledge themselves to kindness is unwise, and sets a terrible precedent. It is a promise to control one's thoughts."

In 2009, Yale banned students from making t-shirts with an F. Scott Fitzgerald quotation----"I think of Harvard men as sissies"---from his 1920 novel "This Side Of Paradise"----to mock Harvard at their annual football game. The t-shirt was blocked after some gay and lesbian students argued that "sissies" amounted to a homophobic slur. "What purports to be humor by targeting a group through slurs is not acceptable," said Mary Miller, a professor of art history and the dean of Yale College.

Recently, two gay activists at George Washington University demanded that the Rev. Gregory Shaffer, a Catholic chaplain, be fired because he supports his church's teachings about homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

A 2010 study by the American Association of Colleges and Universities of 24,000 college students and 9,000 faculty and staff members found that only 35.6 per cent of the students and only 18.5 per cent of the faculty and staff strongly agreed that it was "safe to hold unpopular positions on campus."

With speech codes and the heckler's veto---the First Amendment seems to be increasingly endangered on the nation's campuses. Voltaire would weep.

Salem-News.com contributor Allan C. Brownfeld received his B.A. degree from the College of William and Mary, his J.D. degree from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law of the College of William and Mary and his M.A. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland. He has served on the faculties of St. Stephen's Episcopal School, Alexandria, Virginia, and the University College of the University of Maryland.

The recipient of a Wall Street Journal Foundation Award, Mr. Brownfeld has written for such newspapers as THE HOUSTON PRESS, THE RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH, THE WASHINGTON EVENING STAR and THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER. For many years he wrote three columns a week for such newspapers as THE PHOENIX GAZETTE, THE MANCHESTER UNION LEADER, and THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER. His weekly column appeared for more than a decade in ROLL CALL, the newspaper of Capitol Hill. His articles have appeared in such journals as THE YALE REVIEW, THE TEXAS QUARTERLY, THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, ORBIS and MODERN AGE.

Mr. Brownfeld served as a member of the staff of the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and was the author of that committee's 250-page study of the New Left. He has also served as Assistant to the Research Director of the House Republican Conference and as a consultant to such members of Congress as Reps. Phil Crane (R-Il) and Jack Kemp (R-NY) and to the Vice President of the United States.

He is a former editor of THE NEW GUARD and PRIVATE PRACTICE, the journal of the Congress of County Medical Societies and has served as a Contributing Editor AMERICA'S FUTURE and HUMAN EVENTS. He served as Washington correspondent for the London-based publications, JANE'S ISLAMIC AFFAIRS ANALYST and JANE'S TERRORISM REPORT. His articles regularly appear in newspapers and magazines in England, South Africa, Sweden, the Netherlands and other countries. You can write to Allan at abrownfeld@gmail.com