The Washington Post carries this article about Attorney General Sessions' talk today at the school where I'm an adjunct professor, Georgetown University Law Center. The talk was about free speech on campus.
There are a dozen different things to be said about this. I will content myself with four.
First, Georgetown is a private university and may invite whomever it wants to appear on campus and whomever it wants to be in the audience. In today's climate, Georgetown deserves credit for inviting Jeff Sessions (although it should scarcely be remarkable that a law school, of all places, would invite the Attorney General of the United States).
Second, there are complaints that not everyone who would have liked to be in the audience was accommodated. Well, gosh -- I would have liked to attend for sure, and I teach there, but I wasn't invited either. Good for the University that it gave my potential seat to a student. The fact that not everyone can fit in the room should be too obvious for words, but apparently it isn't. It was, you see, all a conservative plot.
Third, the event was hosted by my friend and colleague, the brilliant libertarian leader Prof. Randy Barnett. Randy argued the Supreme Court case against the government's prohibition of medical marijuana in Gonzales v. Raich, and thus is an opponent of Sessions on one of today's key criminal justice issues. What a tribute to Randy that he offered a platform to a man with whom he has such a major disagreement, knowing that he would take plenty of heat for it to boot.
Fourth, some protesters brought signs saying "Hate Speech Is Not Free Speech." This is arrant nonsense, first because the AG said nothing that a rational person could characterize as hate; and second because hate speech most certainly is free speech, as these law students, before almost anyone else, surely must know. See, e.g., the ACLU's famous defense of Nazis marching in Skokie, Illinois.
Bill, the AG should be commended for giving a very important speech at a very important time. Here is the text which is well worth multiple reads: https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-sessions-gives-address-importance-free-speech-college-campuses. There is so much to like in the speech, I do not know where to start. But especially for those who tend to dislike lawyers, I will be content to stress here this passage:
"Our legal heritage, upon which the Founders crafted the Bill of Rights, taught that reason and knowledge produced the closest approximation to truth—and from truth may arise justice. But reason requires discourse and, frequently, argument. And that is why the free speech guarantee is found not just in the First Amendment, but also permeates our institutions, our traditions, and our Constitution."
"The jury trial, the right to cross-examine witnesses, the Speech & Debate Clause, the very art and practice of lawyering — all of these are rooted in the idea that speech, reason, and confrontation are the very bedrock of a good society. In fact, these practices are designed to ascertain what is the truth. And from that truth, good policies and actions can be founded."
Thanks for posting a link to the speech, which I neglected to do.
A future lawyer? Ugh.
That boob’s sign, “Hate Speech is Not Free Speech! #takeaknee”
is a concise unveiling of the shallowness, callowness,
arbitrariness, and despotism of illiberal democrats.