Controversies over freedom of speech on American college and
university campuses have reached an unprecedented tempo and level of academic
and public attention. This program will explore the role and responsibilities
that members of the legal academy have when we engage with these controversies
as scholars, teachers, public intellectuals, and campus administrators. The
panelists will consider such questions as: What unique perspectives or values
do we in the legal academy bring to debates over campus speech? When campus
protestors assert things like “liberalism is white supremacy” or “the
revolution will not uphold the Constitution,” do law professors have a special
obligation to explain and defend—to students, the public, and many of our
non-law colleagues—the values of free speech and, on public campuses, the law
of the First Amendment? Have the perspectives of legal scholars, especially
defenders of free speech, been inappropriately privileged in these debates?
Have we been open to powerful and reasoned arguments—by our colleagues both
within and outside of law schools—that the value of free speech often is
associated with various forms of privilege and hierarchy, and is in tension
with values of diversity and equality?