A First Amendment Lesson

This week I read an editorial in a college newspaper where a student at a public college, posed the question: “Why does the school say these posters are OK?”

 

The student was very upset and probably justifiably so at the content of some posters on campus.

 

The answer to the student’s question is that a public college has no right to say whether or not a poster is OK.

 

The First Amendment does not apply only to speech which you agree with – it applies to all speech.

 

The student, in his editorial, further argues “The same school that preaches tolerance and diversity is also allowing these posters to go up.”

 

To which I respond: exactly.

 

The remedy for speech that you disagree with is not to suppress the speech. Rather, the remedy is more speech.

Ryan McKeen is an attorney at McKeen Law, LLC.