Annual Constitution Day Lecture Addresses Student First Amendment Rights

In honor of Constitution Day on Wednesday, Sept. 17, University of Texas at Austin School of Law Distinguished Teaching Professor David Rabban 71 gave a lecture at Olin Library titled Free Speech, Academic Freedom, and the American University. The Friends of the Wesleyan Library sponsored the lecture, with Library Assistant Jennifer Hadley spearheading the eventsorganization.

The talk centered on the First Amendment rights of students, professors, and universities as institutions. Rabban led the audience through the history of legal cases on free speech and academic freedom from the1950s.

Rabban addressed the hotbed issues surrounding the First Amendment today. He allotted a significant amount of time to the recent case of Professor Steven Salaitas lack of consideration for a job at the University of Illinois following several anti-Israel posts on his Twitteraccount.

Furthermore, Rabban covered the constitutional validity of university-implemented speech codes, student and professorial expressions of political affiliations, and the extent to which the university as an institution may control when First Amendment rights apply to itsstudents.

In an interview with The Argus, Rabban explained why he chose this particular subject for a Constitution Daylecture.

I thought that Wesleyan students would have interest in free speech topics, Rabban said. I wanted to recognize how many important cases dealing with First Amendment issues have arisen in American universities. The university has been an important place for Constitutional debate and litigation. I also thought that the notion of First Amendment freedom as differentiated from the First Amendment in general might be an interesting topic for the audience to thinkabout.

Rabban began his talk with a staggering list of cases in which the First Amendment rights of a student, professor, or university were the subjects of major legal contention. In this historical dialogue, he alluded to specific legal cases, including state legislatures compelling universities to include discussions of creation science in classroom settings, whether or not universities can refuse to reappoint a professor fired on the grounds that he was a communist, and a universitys right to fire a professor on the grounds of specific works that zepublished.

Rabban emphasized that the First Amendment to the Constitution applies only to stateaction.

I think that many Americans believe that the First Amendment protects citizens against private action as well as state action, Rabban said. But this common belief is incorrect. Private violations on speech do not violate constitutional rights. Translated into the university context, private universities, including their faculty and students, as well as public universities, are protected against the government. Wesleyan, as well as the University of Connecticut, can obtain relief from legislation that violates the FirstAmendment.

Rabban explained that when university trustees or administrators take action against faculty or students, the First Amendment applies only at state universities. Therefore, Rabban pointed out that faculty and students at the University cannot make First Amendment claims against the University and the Board of Trustees. Rabban further acknowledged that this formal constitutional distinction does not always apply in practice because private universities can voluntarily accept the limitations that the First Amendment imposes on publicuniversities.

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Annual Constitution Day Lecture Addresses Student First Amendment Rights