Law Schools

Miami Law Wants To Charge FedSoc $7,646 For ‘Security,’ Which Seems Like An Unnecessary Attack On Their Free Speech

Besides, how does $7,500 in security stop me from pelting FedSoc with rotten fruit?

By Elie Mystal on March 05, 2018 5:15 pm

The Miami Law School chapter of the Federalist Society wants to put on a debate. They’ve resurrected Charles Murray, author of the racist and discredited Bell Curve, to debate Miami Law professor Mary Anne Franks about the First Amendment. Could Miami FedSoc find somebody who wasn’t racist to debate the First Amendment? Of course. But since conservative legal thought in the time of Trump only exists to provide a patina of legal justification for the racism or bigotry of others, Charles Murray seems like a perfect FedSoc person. Donald Trump has made conservatives proud of their racism. Remember that when Trump goes away and these bigots lose their cover.

In any event, the law school at Miami University threw a surprising monkey wrench into FedSoc’s plans to troll non-white students. The school asked them to pay security costs for the event, which were estimated at $7,646.

Now, if any student organization can afford a $7,500 nut to put on an event, it’s the Federalist Society. The Koch brothers have that kind of cash literally just lying around for one of their most effective strategies for reshaping American democracy. But the fact that FedSoc can afford it is besides the point. They really shouldn’t have to.

No student group should have to pay for security just because other students might want to punch them in the face. Security should, at the very least, be included with the price of admission to SCHOOL. If the school can’t guarantee the safety of its own students at events, then it can’t have events. Especially in this time of school shootings, security cannot be a negotiation between the school and its student groups. The way it has got to work is for trained professionals to figure out what kind of security presence is needed, and for the school to listen to them and provide that cover.

This issue can be resolved on the ground that the Second Amendment is entirely too deadly for schools to mess around with security, long before we get to any First Amendment issues about chilling free speech. If Miami Law feels like it’s prohibitively expensive to cover security for its own events, their issue is with their Senator Marco Rubio, not the FedSoc kids.

But there are practical First Amendment concerns as well. Right now, campus conservatives are walking around with huge martyrdom complexes. Their “movement” controls all three branches of government, yet still they feel victimized, in large part because Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have spent the better part of three years telling people that white male grievances are the only grievances that matter.

It will not always be this way (one hopes). Despite what the current incarnation of conservatives would have you believe, most often (and still today) it is minority student groups that have received the threats and hate that makes their events need more security. And those student organizations are not in a silent partnership with Daddy who can just pay away any economic impediments to free speech. The kind of hate inspired by Charles Murray and these FedSoc kids who want to give him a platform is exactly the kind of thing that can turn a Black Panther watch party into a thing that requires enhanced campus security. Making students pay because other students threaten them is a terrible precedent, long term.

Now, I’m not of the opinion that a person like Charles Murray need be given a platform to speak at an institution of learning in the first place. Miami is a private school. It could say: “No, we’re not going to let bigots come to our campus and belittle all of the non-white students here, simply because a white student organization gets its rocks off on that kind of thing. The End.” Of course, being up-front about what they’re doing would get the law school and the university all kinds of hatred from alt-right groups, Nazis, and probably the Confederate Department of Justice because Jeff Sessions is just spoiling for this fight.

Miami Law didn’t have the courage to block the front door, so it’s trying to get this restriction in through the back one. But it can’t work that way. Articulate, please, why inviting bigots to campus is a violation of university protocols, just like you explain why smoking cigarettes in the dorm rooms is a violation of protocols, even though smoking is still perfectly legal. The way it’s supposed to work is that you take a principled stand and then you fight for it, not that you try to make kids pay a $7,500 tax for being intellectually aroused by bigotry.

Cause that’s what this is. Miami Law is trying to tax FedSoc for inviting an odious speaker on campus. And you know how conservatives hate taxes.

University of Miami Demands $7500 for Security for Free Speech Debate Involving Charles Murray [Volokh Conspiracy]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.