Free Speech vs Hate Speech on Campus
An interview with Prof. Nadine Strossen
College campuses have long been bastions of free speech. UC Berkeley was the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement protesting the Vietnam War, the first instance of mass student protests at U.S. colleges. Today, by some accounts, support for free speech on campus is waning in favor of censorship of hateful, racist, or offensive speech. Nadine Strossen, former ACLU president, explores the constitutional underpinnings of students’ speech rights and makes the case for allowing more rather than less speech on campus.
About Prof. Nadine Strossen
“The First Amendment protects even speech we hate—especially speech we hate.”
Nadine Strossen is the John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law Emerita of Law at New York Law School. She has written, taught, and advocated extensively in the areas of constitutional law and civil liberties, including through frequent media interviews. From 1991 through 2008, she served as President of the American Civil Liberties Union, the first woman to head the nation’s largest and oldest civil liberties organization. Professor Strossen is currently a member of the ACLU’s National Advisory Council, as well as the Advisory Boards of EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center), FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), and Heterodox Academy. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Professor Strossen’s writings have been published in many scholarly and general-interest publications (more than 300 published works). Her 2018 book, HATE: Why We Should Resist It With Free Speech, Not Censorship was selected by Washington University as its 2019 “Common Read.” Her 1995 book, Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights, was named by The New York Times as a “Notable Book” of that year.
