The Cancellation of Josh Hawley’s Book Deal Isn’t a First Amendment Issue – Cato Institute

But could this cancellation violate Hawleys contract? Well, the contract hasnt been made public, but as Irecently experienced withmy own book deal, book contracts generally give the publisher great leeway. It could be that Simon &Schuster gets to walk away but Hawley gets to keep his advance, or there could be some other previously agreedupon arrangement. Theres certainly achance that the publisher is breaching the contractit may have determined that it would lose money if it published the book, meaning that this is what lawandeconomics scholars call an efficient breachin which case it owes Hawley liquidated damages as set out in the contract or under generally accepted principles of contract law. Either way, the First Amendment isnt at issue.

Finally, though, theres anonlegal issue at play: the idea that large corporations, cultural and otherwise, are canceling conservatives (and libertarians) in various ways. Indeed, such censorship byFacebook,GoogleandTwitteris the very subject of Hawleys book. The extent to which this phenomenon is real or concerning depends alot on specific facts. Surely, if it had turned out that an author was aneoNazi Holocaust denieror aKlan member, or aStalinistfew would object to deplatforming him. So this is largely adebate about the Overton window of appropriate public discourse and policing what Ive previously calledthe SatanScherbatsky line.

Its certainly troubling that, for example,The New York Times publication of anopedby Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) on how best to quell last summers rioting caused the opinion editor to lose his job, while the Gray Lady publishes regular apologies for Communist regimes (as recently aslast Monday). And there are indeed woke mobs out there, most notably on social media, even if that choice of words was unfortunate in light of the actual mob that Hawley fistpumped last Wednesday.

These are real cultural pathologies that our society must grapple with. But that doesnt mean theres arole for government to fix these issuesand theyre certainly not First Amendment violations.

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The Cancellation of Josh Hawley's Book Deal Isn't a First Amendment Issue - Cato Institute