But he never entertains the possibility that the education that not only colleges but high schools and universities offer has deteriorated to such an extent that only conservatives know what the First Amendment does.
Here are University of Southern California law professor Michael Simkovic’s key takeaways on recent free speech controversies on college campuses:
~”Many lectures about “free speech” are not really about “free speech,” but rather are intended to provoke a reaction that will discredit universities.
~”When such reactions occur, many news stories about them are created, shaped, and disseminated by a well-funded network that wants to transform and take over universities.
~”Students, professors, administrators should not take the bait; nor should journalists.”
Indeed, in his blog post on Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports, he spends about half of his essay deconstructing the appearance of conservative law school Professor Josh Blackman at CUNY. A notable omission in his coverage: the eight minutes demonstrators spent disrupting the visiting professor’s speech.
Nevertheless, legal scholar David E. Bernstein, in his blog on Reason.com, did notice a curious inclusion: “And of course, the article has to have the requisite references to the Emmanuel Goldsteins of the modern left, the Koch Brothers, who are mentioned four times for no discernable reason.”
By the way, Bernstein is a professor at the George Mason University School of Law. Leiter toils at the University of Chicago Law School.
