Stanford Law School Dean Letter on Free Speech
After an explosive shout-down at Stanford Law School, its dean defends free speech in a long, now seminal letter that should stand as a model for all university leaders in articulating and enforcing a commitment to the principles of free speech and freedom of association. Below are a couple of excerpts. We strongly encourage our members and all Harvard’s faculty and leadership to read the full letter.
“Students calling for the law school administration to restrict the organization or the speakers it can bring to campus are demanding action inconsistent not only with freedom of speech but with rights to freedom of association that civil rights lawyers fought hard in the twentieth century to secure… Unless we recognize that student members of the Federalist Society and other conservatives have the same right to express their views free of coercion, we cannot live up to this commitment nor can we claim that we are fostering an inclusive environment for all students.”
“Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is not going to take the form of having the school administration announce institutional positions on a wide range of current social and political issues, make frequent institutional statements about current news events, or exclude or condemn speakers who hold views on social and political issues with whom some or even many in our community disagree. I believe that focus on these types of actions as the hallmark of an ‘inclusive’ environment can lead to creating and enforcing an institutional orthodoxy that is not only at odds with our core commitment to academic freedom, but also that would create an echo chamber that ill prepares students to go out into and act as effective advocates in a society that disagrees about many important issues.
Related:
My Struggle Session at Stanford Law School (March 2023; many related links provided)
