Amy Wax ’s Academic Freedom Should Be Defended–but Not Her Views

Cathy YoungUnder pressure from students andpoliticians, University of Pennsylvania Law School is initiating sanctions against Professor Amy Wax over her latest controversial remarks about race –this time,suggesting that Asian ‐​American immigration is bad for America and that we need less of it.This move to retaliate against a  professor’s protected speech has rightly elicited criticism and concern. A letter to Penn President Amy Gutmann from the Academic Freedom Alliance, signed by Princeton constitutional scholar Keith Whittington, states that “[p]rinciples of free speech include the right of professors to speak in public on matters of public concern without the threat of sanctions by their university employer” and that the university must “publicly reaffirm the free speech rights of the members of its faculty.” As Cato adjunct sc holar and George Mason University law professor Ilya Sominpoints out at the Volokh Conspiracy blog, while Penn is a  private university and the First Amendment doesn’t apply, moves by university administrators to punish a professor’s speech outside the classroom clearly endanger academic freedom.But it ’s possible to strongly defend a person’s right to express opinions without being punished while condemning the opinions as repugnant, and that, it seems to me, is the appropriate pro‐​liberty stance in this case. In fact, “freedom of speech should protect even repugnant views” is the e ssence of the pro‐​lib...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 20, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Cathy Young Source Type: blogs