Brown University newspaper advertisement

[Sanford Levinson]

Do theories of criminal punishment necessarily apply if we're talking about
the application of university discipline?  That is, I would be quite
willing to discipline the students for breaching implicit norms of
membership in a university community, but I'd be hesitant to treat it as a
criminal offense.  Does this make sense, or does accepting the legitimacy
of university discipline entail the legitimacy of "external" discipline as
well?

sandy


>
>I assume the government's theory was that there was an implied limitation
>on taking copies that the students had exceeded.  I understand that the
>rule of lenity militates against this theory.  As I said, the case was plea
>bargained out.
>
>                                                Paul Salamanca
>
>
>At 10:39 AM 3/20/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>>I have a collateral question about events reported over the weekend.
>>According to the report, Brown University's student newspaper published
>>an advertisement for a book by David Horowitz, the advertisement
>>enumerating reasons against reparations for African Americans.  The
>>student newspaper is (apparently -- but assume that it is) available at
>>no charge.  A number of students who objected to the advertisement,
>>apparently followed the newspaper's delivery routes and picked up all
>>copies of the newspaper as they were dropped off.  Now, the collateral
>>question:  Did the students do anything that violated (general) legal
>>standards?  (I put aside the possibility that there might be some
>>specific criminal regulation directed at this behavior.)  Or, more
>>generally, is it an offense to take an unreasonable number or amount of
>>material that is made available without charge?
>>
>>Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\tushnet13.vcf"
>>
>