Points of view, neither true nor false, struggle for acceptance. There is most certainly such a thing as a false charge of plagiarism, however. If Feldman is right, his colleague committed a grave error, perhaps the crime of copyright infringement. If Feldman is wrong, then he has committed the tort of slander. No one these days believes that penalizing defamation violates the first amendment.
Society has a pervasive and strong interest in preventing and redressing attacks upon reputation.
Defendants therefore are entitled to immunity, if not to judgment on the whole first amendment aspect of the case. Feldman believes that the University did not investigate his charge properly and that Ho leapt to the colleague's defense rather than keeping an open mind. One could recast this in the language of balancing. On receiving a charge of intellectual dishonesty, a universi- ty should investigate. Interests weigh on the side of the speaker, on the side of the target, and on the side of the educational mission.