Home

About
- Who We Are
- Community Guidelines
- Right to Respond

Advertising on BOR
- Advertise on BOR
- Buy on all Texas Blogs

Advertisements

Search




Advanced Search


A Victory for Free Speech


by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Thu Oct 09, 2008 at 06:37 PM CDT


I just wanted to make a brief statement of support, thanks, and congratulations to some folks in regards to last nights' explosion of activity regarding the UT Sign Policies.

First off, major kudos to UT President Bill Powers, whose statement was quick, striking, and supportive of Free Speech over aged policies. While it does not mean the issue is dead, it is an indication that UT is willing to do more than simply delay or suspend the issue, but instead review it on its face in a collaborative setting to reach a fair, constitutional policy. I think being the former Dean of the Law School certainly helped and it re-enforces my general positive feelings about Powers in his role as President.

Secondly, this would not have been possible without Connor and his cousin Blake being willing to stand up for their free speech rights in the face of possibly harsh penalties. It's a huge risk, and one that most would not take lightly. But in the end, tremendously worthwhile.

And lastly, major thanks to the coalition of both the University Democrats and College Republicans who were brought together by their shared design to protect students rights in this matter. That's leadership.

ADVERTISEMENT
Tags: , , , , (All Tags)
Print Friendly View Send As Email

About "Free Speech" (0.00 / 0)
Look, I'm a lefty and a believer in free speech. But you guys gotta quit casting this as a "victory" for free speech -- because it just wasn't.

Let me explain. Under the current law of the land (following Supreme Court precedents, etc.), the students were dead wrong about their "rights" to hang these signs, and the university would've won any court case in a heartbeat. The university is perfectly able to regulate speech on campus, and as long as they were restricting all speech equally in dorm windows, there is no violation of First Amendment rights.

At best, the students could argue that the dorm room is "their space" and not "university space" -- who knows: maybe they could've gotten somewhere with that. But the odds were heavily against it.

The university most likely caved on this for PR reasons -- not because the students were right about their rights.

I'm no expert on First Amendment law, but I do know something about it, and from what I recall about it, there really isn't a legal problem with what the university has been doing. The students' "rights" did not (and still do not) include the right to hang signs in the window where university policy prohibits it (so long as the prohibition applies to all speech equally).

I'm glad the policy will be revisited -- I'm glad students can hang their signs (for now). Just because the government CAN restrict this speech doesn't mean it SHOULD. I just think we need to be clear about what's really going on. Getting an unpopular policy changed is great. But this doesn't rise to the level of "fighting for your rights" -- because here, you didn't really have any right to fight for (because a "right" is a legal protection against government restriction, and here you had no legal protection against this government restriction).

Just sayin'.


Follow Up (0.00 / 0)
I'll add one thing: it's possible to cast this as a "victory" for "free speech" if, in layman's terms, you're just talking about achieving less-restricted speech. The students' speech is definitely less restricted now, so in that sense it is "freer." And that's a victory.

In my first comment, I was simply explaining that this was NOT a victory for "free speech" in the legal, constitutional sense of the term, because the students did NOT gain any greater legal/constitutional protection for their speech. If the university wasn't concerned about PR -- i.e., about fighting a legal battle under the spotlight of public attention while on the less-popular side of things -- then it would likely win that legal battle. And the restrictions would still stand. (In fact, under this scenario, "free speech" might even be weakened, as there would be yet additional case law supporting the government's authority to restrict speech on campus.)

So...I'll echo the kudos to Prez Powers, who made the better decision to simply suspend the policy.


3 cheers! (0.00 / 0)
This is definitely the Bill Powers I know and respect. He doesn't always know his stuff going in -- nobody could -- but he's quick to admit what he doesn't know, he learns what he needs to, and he makes very fair decisions.

Also, I agree with profsteed that this isn't a victory for free speech in the technical legal sense, but it sure is a victory for the broader idea that political discourse shouldn't be restricted without a damn good reason. So here's to the folks who fought against a really dumb rule, and to the University President who saw that they were right.  


I agree (0.00 / 0)
And I do mean Free Speech in the later sense, not strictly as a constitutional argument (though I do believe there is one there). Maybe "freer" speech is more correct.

Please read the Community Guidelines and How to Rate Comments.

[ Parent ]
2012 Texas Elections
Texas Elections Previews:
-- Congressional Preview
-- State Senate Preview
-- State House Preview
-- State House: D Primaries

BOR Original Series:
-- Senate Showdown
-- Travis County Primaries


BOR Endorsements
2012 Democratic Primary

US Senate: Sean Hubbard

Congressional Races:
CD-10: Tawana Cadien
CD-14: Nick Lampson
CD-16: Silvestre Reyes
CD-20: Joaquin Castro
CD-21: Candace Duval
CD-22: KP George
CD-23: Pete Gallego
CD-30: Taj Clayton
CD-33: Marc Veasey
CD-35: Lloyd Doggett

Travis County Races:
DA: Rosemary Lehmberg
Sheriff: John Sisson
Tax/VR: Bruce Elfant
167th: David Wahlberg
Commissioners
Pct 1: Franklin or Gonzales
Pct 3: Karen Huber
Constables
Pct 1: Danny Thomas
Pct 2: Paul Labuda
Pct 3: Sally Hernandez
Pct 4: Maria Canchola
Pct 5: Carlos Lopez

State House Endorsements:
HD-43: Y. Gonzalez Toureilles
HD-74: Poncho Nevarez
HD-75: Mary Gonzalez
HD-90: Lon Burnam
HD-95: Nicole Collier
HD-101: Chris Turner
HD-110: Toni Rose
HD-117: Tina Torres
HD-125: Justin Rodriguez
HD-131: Alma Allen
HD-137: Joe Carlos Madden
HD-144: Mary Ann Perez
HD-147: Garnet Coleman

Select County Chairs

Early Voting: May 14-25
Election Day: Tues. May 29


Connect With BOR
Your source for Texas politics.

On Facebook: BOR
On Twitter: @BOR
On Tumblr: BOR
On Pinterest:
Rick Perry's Rental Mansion

Need A Vendor?
Check out BOR's Progressive Vendor Page for campaigns and non-profits.


Original Cartoons


This week:
"Secret Service"


Menu

Make a New Account

Username:

Password:



Forget your username or password?


Shared On Facebook

Advertisement

Best of Texas Left
- (Complete Directory)
- B & B
- Bay Area Houston
- Blue Bloggin
- Bluedaze
- Brains and Eggs
- Capitol Annex
- Collin County Democrats
- Collin County Observer
- Community Forum
- Dog Canyon
- Dos Centavos
- Easter Lemming Liberal
- Eye on Williamson County
- Feet to the Fire
- Grading Texas
- Greg's Opinion
- Grits for Breakfast
- Half Empty
- Houtopia
- In the Pink Texas
- Kiss My Big Blue Butt
- Letters from Texas
- McBlogger
- Mean Rachel
- Musings
- North Texas Liberal
- Off the Kuff
- Panhandle Truth Squad
- Para Justicia y Libertad!
- Pink Dome
- San Antonio Mayor
- South Texas Chisme
- StoudDemBlog
- Texas Clover Leaf
- Texas Kaos
- The Caucus Blog
- There..Already
- Three Wise Men
Best of Texas Right
- Blogs of War
- BlogHouston
- Boots and Sabers
- Lone Star Times
- Publius TX
- Rick Perry vs the World
- Safety for Dummies
- Slightly Rough
- Urban Grounds
Other Texas Reads
- Burka Blog
- D Magazine
- DOT Show
- Statesman Elections
- Strong Political Analysis
- Texas Monthly
- Texas Observer
- The Texas Blue
- Quorum Report Daily Buzz
Around Austin
- Austin Bloggers
- Austin Chronicle
- Austin Contrarian
- Austin Metblogs
- Austin on Two Wheels
- Austin Real Estate Blog
- Austin Statesman
- Austin Texas Bike Shit Stuff
- Austin Towers
- Austinist
- Capital MetroBlog
- Daily Texan
- Do512
- Downtown Austin Blog
- East Austinite
- Elise Hu
-
Flash Mob Austin
- Keep Austin Blue
- M1EK
- Travis County Democrats
- University Democrats
TX Progressive Orgs
- ACLU Legislative Blog
- Atticus Circle
- Criminal Justice Coalition
- Equality Texas
- NOW Texas
- PFAW Texas
- Public Citizen
- SEIU Texas
- Tejano Insider
- Texas AFT
- Texas HDCC
- Texas Watch
- TFN
- TSTA
- TSEU
- Texas Young Democrats
- United Ways of Texas
TX Elections/Returns
- TX Returns 1992-present
- TX Media/Candidate List

- Bexar County
- Collin County
- Dallas county
- Denton County
- El Paso County
- Fort Bend County
- Harris County
- Jefferson County
- Tarrant County
- Travis County

- CNN 1998 Returns
- CNN 2000 Returns
- CNN 2002 Returns
- CNN 2004 Returns
- CNN 2006 Returns
- CNN 2008 Returns
Traffic Ratings
- Alexa Rating
- Quantcast Ratings
-
Syndication

Burnt Orange Reporters
Publisher: Karl-Thomas M.
Editor-in-Chief: Katherine H.
Contributor: Phillip M.
Senior Writer: Michael H.
Staff Writer: Adam S.
Staff Writer: Ben S.
Staff Writer: Chaille J.
Staff Writer: Edward G.
Staff Writer: Emily C.
Founder: Byron L.

Read staff bios here.

Powered by: SoapBlox