The sad state of freedom of speech and the ACLU

[K-S-U-Wildcats!]

Claire Guthrie Gastañaga, Executive Director of the prominent DC-based Virginia chapter of the ACLU, was invited to speak at the venerable William and Mary College. But she was quickly shouted down by BLM activists and other radical leftists, for reasons that still aren't quite clear. The heckling was so bad that she gave up, left the stage, and later published an outline of her planned remarks.

The ACLU then issued a statement concerning the event which read, in part....

Disruption that prevents a speaker from speaking, and audience members from hearing the speaker, is not constitutionally protected speech even on a public college campus subject to the First Amendment; it is a classic example of a heckler’s veto, and, appropriately, can be prohibited by a college student code of conduct as it is at William and Mary. As a government entity, a public college like William and Mary has an obligation to protect the freedom of the speaker to speak and not to allow one group of people to shout down or seek to intimidate other speakers or members of the audience who wish to hear the speaker from exercising their own free speech rights. This is true regardless of what individuals or groups are speaking, protesting or counter-protesting.
...
What happened at William and Mary on Sept. 27 is a part of a larger national trend that is challenging campus leaders across the country to find the right formula for assuring that critical community conversations can take place in a culture of inquiry consistent with a true learning environment. Actions that bully, intimidate or disrupt must not be without consequences in any such formula.

But then - poof - these parts of the statement vanished. When contacted, the ACLU acknowledged that the statement had been revised because of internal disagreement.

The ACLU always had a leftward-leaning social bent, but has generally been a reliable champion for freedom of speech. It appears that that their liberalism is now corrupting that, too.

https://concurringopinions.com/archives/2017/10/fan-166-first-amendment-news-deleted-passages-va-aclu-abandons-key-portions-of-its-original-statement-regarding-william-mary-controversy.html

[catastrophe]

I suspect the last part was not on solid legal footing. I generally agree with those excerpts, but do not see them as particularly left or right leaning, so I’m not sure what your point is.

[Fake Sugar Dick (WARNING, NOT THE REAL SUGAR DICK!)]

The ACLU seems like its generally trying to come back to its mission statement, although I'm sure they have a significant number of neo-fascists (i.e. progressives) obfuscating that process.

[star seed 7]

Card carrying member, ama

[ChiComCat]

If parts of the ACLU's statement vanished, I'm not sure what the issue is.  Being an organization and not an individual, they are speaking for their group and some internal discussion for how they represent themselves is reasonable.

Overall, I agree that shouting down speakers that students disagree with needs be stopped by the university.  If students want to protest outside the event, by all means, but there is value in debate and discussion.  The school also needs to be responsible in bringing in speakers with substance and not just trolls.

[LickNeckey]

i agree with both the ACLU's initial response and their ability to change it

 

[Cire]

If the GOP weren't always trampling people's rights then GOP'ers wouldn't think the ACLU was some leftist group.