Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Anti-Palestinian Fliers Lead to Calls for Police Investigation; Police Say They
Are Free Speech:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_03_15-2009_03_21.shtml#1237325123
[1]The University of Maryland Diamondback reports:
University of Maryland Palestinian students and supporters were
confronted with malevolent opposition Tuesday in the form of
posters bearing vivid anti-Palestine propaganda that students said
made them feel threatened, though it did not stop Palestinian
Solidarity Week from continuing Wednesday night....
One such flier depicted a woman, wearing a traditional Muslim burqa
and holding an AK-47 in one hand and a bomb-toting baby in the
other. "What did she teach her child today?" was written above the
picture.
This poster and others like it were found after Tuesday's "What
would MLK Say About Gaza?" event, which was hosted by several
student organizations....
Senior dietetics major Gisica Abdallah was at Tuesday's event --
which was held in Jimenez Hall -- when her friends brought the
posters to her attention....
"They were everywhere," Abdallah said. "The hatred that was
portrayed, that was the most hurtful thing."
Abdallah then began tearing down as many signs as she could before
running to the Stamp Student Union, where she brought the fliers to
Vice President for Student Affairs Linda Clement.
"[The posters] made a number of our students feel very
uncomfortable," Clement said. "We have been doing things all day to
investigate the incident. ... We have people examining surveillance
tapes in the union and will be working with University Police to
try and figure out who did this." ...
A [2]University of Maryland Police spokesman reports that the
department concluded that, "Basically, these fliers were free speech,
[p]lain and simple."
But the university administration seems to take a different view:
The fliers ... were in violation of the university's policy on free
speech ....
"There's such a thing as free speech," [Vice President for Student
Affairs Linda Clement] said. "But when you post things anonymously
and make others feel threatened, that's not free speech."
A few thoughts:
1. If the signs were in violation of a valid and content-neutral
posting policy (e.g., that one can't post signs on building walls),
they might indeed be properly punished, and removed.
2. Likewise, if there was a policy banning anonymous postings on
university bulletin boards, it might be constitutional. The government
may not ban anonymous speech generally, but it's possible -- though
not fully settled -- that the university may indeed restrict anonymous
posting on property that it voluntarily opens up for student access.
This wouldn't make the posters illegal (unless they were seen as some
sort of trespass, which I doubt), but perhaps it might justify the
removal.
3. But if those aren't the rationales, and the university views the
posters as unprotected -- and is willing to countenance their removal
by students -- because of the message they express, then the
university may do so only if the speech really falls within the narrow
First Amendment exception for threats. Judging by the newspaper
account, and by the police department's conclusion, there seems to be
no evidence of that here. If any of you can point me to the actual
posters involved, I'd love to analyze them (and link to them so
readers can make the judgment for themselves).
Of course, there's the now customary [3]quote about the "difference
between free speech and hate speech":
"There is a difference between free speech and hate speech," said
government and politics and Spanish language and literature major
Sana Javed, who helped to organize Palestinian Solidarity Week.
"They were an irrelevant commentary on Islam, but we were talking
about politics."
No, there is no such difference under First Amendment law. Nor does
First Amendment law draw a distinction between "commentary on Islam"
(or Christianity or Judaism or atheism or whatever else) and "talking
about politics," since much commentary on religion is commentary on
politics.
References
1. http://www.uwire.com/Article.aspx?id=3834080
2. http://www.uwire.com/Article.aspx?id=3855972
3. http://www.uwire.com/Article.aspx?id=3855972
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
