Just Follow the First Amendment - Commentary

Max Schanzenbach, the Seigle Family Professor of Law, and Kimberly Yuracko, the Judd and Mary Morris Leighton Professor of Law, at the Pritzker School of Law. Northwestern University (IL), write:  The House Republicans won a rhetorical victory last month in the congressional hearing addressing antisemitism on college campuses. The then presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania could not thread the needle necessary to reconcile their institutions’ prior robust regulation of speech in the name of community inclusivity with their recent failure to take action against hateful speech—indeed, sometimes conduct—directed at Jewish students. Under questioning, the presidents appeared insensitive, evasive and inconsistent. In short, the leaders of our top universities, advised by a top law firm, got schooled. But this rhetorical victory will soon prove Pyrrhic if higher education draws the wrong lessons.