From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: Re: "Regents reject hate speech rule"
Originator: kadie@eff.org
Organization: The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 03:47:53 GMT

According to a UPI article in clari.news.issues:

>   "The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents rejected a controversial
>UW hate speech rule Friday.
[...]

>And is this supposed to be a good thing???
[...]

It's good thing because bigots will no longer be free-speech martyrs.
They will now defend their view in public, where I'm hopeful that the
truth, not they will prevail. It is also a good thing because it takes
away the University's power to define some student speech as "hate
speech" and then punish it.

- Carl

ANNOTATED REFERENCES

(All these documents are available on-line. Access information follows.)

=================
academic/speech-codes.aaup
=================
* Speech Codes (AAUP)

On Freedom of Expression and Campus Speech Codes Expression - An
official statement of the American Association of University
Professors (AAUP)

It says in part: "On a campus that is free and open, no idea can be
banned or forbidden.  No viewpoint or message may be deemed so hateful
or disturbing that it may not be expressed."

=================
news/cafv02n10: Message-Id: <1992Feb26.165417.12215@eff.org>
=================
An article from the Computers and Academic Freedom News 02.10

Note 1 concerns the limits a university may place on free speech.

1. According to a short item in the Chicago Tribune, some at the
University of Wisconsin want to draft new, narrower "hate speech" rule
to replace the rule that was struck down by the district federal
court. The author of the original restrictions says that he isn't sure
the rule is needed anymore.

=================
law/uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin
=================
* Expression -- Hate Speech -- UWM Post v. U Of Wisconsin

The full text of UWM POST v. U. of Wisconsin. This recent district
court ruling goes into detail about the difference between protected
offensive expression and illegal harassment. It even mentions email.

It concludes: "The founding fathers of this nation produced a
remarkable document in the Constitution but it was ratified only with
the promise of the Bill of Rights.  The First Amendment is central to
our concept of freedom.  The God-given "unalienable rights" that the
infant nation rallied to in the Declaration of Independence can be
preserved only if their application is rigorously analyzed.

The problems of bigotry and discrimination sought to be addressed here
are real and truly corrosive of the educational environment.  But
freedom of speech is almost absolute in our land and the only
restriction the fighting words doctrine can abide is that based on the
fear of violent reaction.  Content-based prohibitions such as that in
the UW Rule, however well intended, simply cannot survive the
screening which our Constitution demands."

=================
=================

If you have gopher, you can browse the CAF archive with the command
   gopher gopher.eff.org

These document(s) are also available by anonymous ftp (the preferred
method) and by email. To get the file(s) via ftp, do an anonymous ftp
to ftp.eff.org (192.88.144.4), and get file(s):

  pub/academic/academic/speech-codes.aaup
  pub/academic/news/cafv02n10
  pub/academic/law/uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin

To get the file(s) by email, send email to archive-server@eff.org.
Include the line(s) (be sure to include the space before the file
name):

send acad-freedom/academic speech-codes.aaup
send acad-freedom/news cafv02n10
send acad-freedom/law uwm-post-v-u-of-wisconsin




-- 
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
 =kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk