Law Schools

So Much For Free Speech: Harvard Law Students Punished For Reading Together At Campus Library

Even study groups are complex now.

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Basically this

There is a very strong tendency for the discourse surrounding protests to fixate on their form rather than their content. The criticism usually begins and ends with an assessment of  how polite or convenient the protest was. Sure, human rights are important or whatever, but was the Olympics really the best place to raise a fist? Or “Yes, cops murdering unarmed people is bad or whatever, but can you believe Kaepernick is ruining Sunday Night Football?” If the politeness check isn’t met, people act as if it permits all sorts of rude responses that range from state sanctioned ridicule to state actors hurting or killing protestors.

Despite disruption being a vital component in the history of protesting, the demand that protests be polite and convenient (in addition to the fire hoses and dogs, tear gas and attacks on university faculty and students that buttress the demands for protesters to be polite and patient) has incentivized less and less invasive forms of protest. We’ve moved from blocking roads and sit-ins as objectionable protests to studying with the wrong scarves and laptop decor as deserving scrutiny.

If we are to have any meaningful discussion about free speech on campus that isn’t just a shorthand excuse for FedSoc judges being able to spew Fox News talking points without being expected to respect pedagogical norms like explaining your legal decision to law students, students quietly studying as protest has to be the bare minimum of what’s allowed, right? Doesn’t seem to be the case at Harvard.

The good news is that the students are supported by some of the faculty — Harvard Law professor Andrew Crespo, joined by Harvard Businness’ Reshmaan N. Hussam did a write up on the protest for The Crimson:

[A] few weeks ago, at least twelve of our students were suspended from the same library for…reading quietly, with small signs taped to their laptops.

We strongly disagree with Harvard’s decision to ban our students from the library over this conduct. A university should never deny access to scholarly resources as a mode of punishment. In fact, we believe these sanctions violate the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights.
…
If there is one noteworthy difference between our study session and theirs, it is that the students all wore traditional Palestinian keffiyehs around their necks, while we and our colleagues wore black scarves. We did this with intention, to underscore the unequal and repeated disciplinary threats and actions targeting students who have expressed a particular point of view this last year.

It is refreshing to see law professors going to bat for their students, much better than having to cover another Amy Wax “Hate speech is good, actually!” story. The professors go on to say that there is no reasonable way to frame students quietly studying and sharing ideas as disruptive since…that’s kinda the fundamental purpose of universities. It is so fundamental that there is a legitimate question of if the student’s study group constituted a “protest,” framing it as such may already be ceding to the University’s framing of the shared silent study. For example, would a group of students studying together that have “Don’t tread on me” stickers or even a sign in front of them that says “Sic Semper Tyrannis” in front of their laptop amount to a protest? Probably not, even if they all happen to be very enthusiastic libertarians. What makes this “protest” any different?

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Harvard isn’t the only place where the expression of a particular point of view has resulted in an uncharacteristically aggressive response. Ta-Nehisi Coates recently came under fire for sharing the apparently controversial opinion that Apartheid is categorically bad on CBS. The fall out has resulted in some in-depth discussions about why and how dissent is policed in public forums:

If reading quietly in a library can be framed as a punishable form of protest, what places and methods remain for peacefully voicing dissent? Or for that matter, merely studying?

Will Harvard Punish Its Professors for Reading in the Library? [The Crimson]

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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