Seeking Justice, Seeking Truth: a Conversation with Nadine Strossen
Academic Freedom Alliance| Olivia Glunz
An excellent interview with Nadine Strossen (AB ‘72, JD ‘75), former ACLU president, Harvard alum, New York Law professor emeritus, and author of HATE: Why We Should Resist it With Free Speech, Not Censorship. Strossen discusses why college students aren’t to blame for their close-mindedness around free speech, the importance of intellectual and historical humility, how today’s censorship is worse than during the McCarthy era, why protection from harmful speech does more harm than activists believe it does, and how our system of justice and the rule of law are imperiled by law school students who refuse to take the other side of an argument. This interview follows another excellent piece on Strossen in the Wall Street Journal, Make Free Speech Liberal Again.
Among the questions Glunz asks are: Have you always been a proponent of academic freedom, what are its limits, how has the academic freedom scene changed, how do you encourage others to value free speech and academic freedom, and what can students, faculty, administrators, and others do to promote academic freedom?
Strossen argues that college students are not to blame for censorship— “The students are showing up to college without any prior understanding of free speech principles and intellectual freedom principles,” she explains. “This comes from their upbringing, from their education prior to entering college…[they] haven’t been exposed to concepts of classical liberalism, including free speech and academic freedom…[or learned] about the way our government works and the important role that freedom of expression and academic freedom play in our democratic republic.”
She goes on to say that we need to “do a better job of preparing young people from an early age not only to tolerate different ideas and perspectives but to welcome them enthusiastically and joyfully as a way to test their own ideas, to shape their own views, and to engage with the world in a more interesting and deeper way.”
Another issue? Lack of humility—“I’m always telling my students that we have to have intellectual and historical humility; too many people now look back on awful Supreme Court decisions such as the Dred Scott decision or Plessy v. Ferguson and think, ‘Oh, we would never do that now.’ But I always remind them, a future generation is going to be looking back upon us and condemning mistakes that we now see as gospel truth. Historical humility is key.”
As for how today’s censorship compares to the past? “I’m really interested in the comparison between the number of faculty members who were investigated and retaliated against during the McCarthy era versus now. FIRE is still in the process of gathering the data about the McCarthy era, but it seems as if the numbers are much worse now.” And it’s not all from the left, she shows. “63% of the incidents have come from the left of the targeted professor—these cases are mostly initiated by students and other professors. Meanwhile, 37% of incidents are coming from the right of the professor, mostly due to pressure from politicians, public figures, and the general public.”
What advice does she have for today’s activists? ”No matter how well-intentioned censorship is, it ends up doing more harm than good, including to the very groups it is supposed to benefit. Human rights advocates all over the world have reached the same conclusion, so I really wanted to make that plea to new social justice activists on campus. . My advocacy has been mostly aimed at young people, at liberals, because that’s where I think there’s been weakness and fear that free speech and DEI causes are incompatible.”
Regarding law school, where arguing the other side is integral to the education— “I’ve heard some reports that some law students are refusing point-blank to articulate certain positions if they don’t agree with those positions, even in moot court exercises,” she explains. “That would be a real loss to the legal profession, which means a real loss to the system of justice and the rule of law.”
Related: Make Free Speech Liberal Again (WSJ, 8/5/22)— A former ACLU president [Nadine Strossen] urges the left—and all of us—to re-embrace the First Amendment.
