Public University Requires Extra Security for Pro-Israel
Speakers
Mark Tushnet
tushnet at law.georgetown.edu
Sat Mar 20 21:17:21 PST 2004
I think this problem is one of the hardest in free speech
law. A couple of dimensions need to be separated out.
(1) Discriminatory invocation of the imposition of security
costs -- obviously a problem, but not an interesting one,
and, according to the post, not present here. (2)
Accurate method for determining the extra security costs.
That's actually the holding of the Forsyth County case to
which David refers. The facts aren't sufficiently detailed to
know if that's involved here. (3) Imposition of the
requirement on impecunious speakers as well as on those
who can afford to pay.
The hard problem, I think, is the imposition of a cost-
justified fee for excess security costs (that is, those costs
in excess of the ordinary public expenditures for providing
police protection -- you can fiddle with whether "ordinary"
means "in conjunction with the typical demonstration or
speech" or "in conjunction with daily living," but I don't think
it makes an interesting difference which way you go) on
an impecunious speaker. What are the intuitions people
have about the constitutionality of imposing a cost-justified
fee for excess security on Ross Perot? If it's
unconstitutional, then the public is subsidizing Perot's
speech. If it's constitutional to impose such a fee, there's
no subsidy running either way -- for all practical purposes,
Perot [or the group in David's post] is simply paying for a
security service. Another way of asking the question is,
Can Perot be required either to pay the cost-justified fee or
provide private security services for the event?
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="-----------------------------1079756780"
-------------------------------1079756780
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>From this blog post,
http://www.yourish.com/archives/2004/mar14-20_2004.html#2004031804, I learn
that a student group at Virginia Commonwealth University has invited Daniel
Pipes, a pro-Israel speaker who is the center of numerous controversies,
including allegations (false, in my view) that he is "anti-Muslim" to speak, and that
the University is requiring that the group raise extra money to pay for extra
security. On further correspondence with the author of the post, I learn that
VCU requires all student organizations to provide security if the event
warrants it, like a dance. Question: Is it constitutionally permissible for a
public university like VCU to require a student group to spend extra money on
security for a controversial speaker, or does this situation fall within the USSC
cases that forbid the government from requiring the KKK, parade organizers,
etc, from posting bonds, paying for their own security, etc.? On its face, it's
sounds very fishy to me that if Muslim and pro-Palestinian students disrupt
pro-Israel speakers, the pro-Israel groups get taxed for it.
Professor David E. Bernstein
George Mason University School of Law
http://mason.gmu.edu/~dbernste
blog: http://volokh.com/index.htm?bloggers=DavidB
***********************************************
My latest book, You Can't Say That!
The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties
from Antidiscrimination Laws, has just
been published
***********************************************
-------------------------------1079756780
Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
<HTML><HEAD>
<META charset=3DUS-ASCII http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; cha=
rset=3DUS-ASCII">
<META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.2800.1276" name=3DGENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY style=3D"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fffff=
f">
<DIV>From this blog post,</DIV>
<DIV><A href=3D"http://www.yourish.com/archives/2004/mar14-20_2004.html#2004=
031804">http://www.yourish.com/archives/2004/mar14-20_2004.html#2004031804</=
A>, I learn that a student group at Virginia Commonwealth University has inv=
ited Daniel Pipes, a pro-Israel speaker who is the center of numerous contro=
versies, including allegations (false, in my view) that he is "anti-Muslim"=20=
to speak, and that the University is requiring that the group raise ext=
ra money to pay for extra security. On further correspondence with the=
author of the post, I learn that VCU requires all student organization=
s to provide security if the event warrants it, like a dance. Question:=
Is it constitutionally permissible for a public university like VCU to requ=
ire a student group to spend extra money on security for a controversial spe=
aker, or does this situation fall within the USSC cases that forbid the gove=
rnment from requiring the KKK, parade organizers, etc, from posting bonds, p=
aying for their own security, etc.? On its face, it's sounds=
very fishy to me that if Muslim and pro-Palestinian students disrupt pro-Is=
rael speakers, the pro-Israel groups get taxed for it.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=3D0 face=3DArial size=3D2 FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" PTSIZE=3D"10"=
>Professor David E. Bernstein<BR>George Mason University School of Law<BR><A=
href=3D"http://mason.gmu.edu/~dbernste">http://mason.gmu.edu/~dbernste</A>=20=
<BR>blog: <A href=3D"http://bernstein.blogspot.com/">http://volokh.com/index=
.htm?bloggers=3DDavidB</A><BR></FONT><FONT lang=3D0 face=3DArial color=3D#00=
0000 size=3D1 FAMILY=3D"SANSSERIF" PTSIZE=3D"8">****************************=
*******************<BR>My latest book, <I>You Can't Say That!<BR>The Growing=
Threat to Civil Liberties<BR>from Antidiscrimination Laws</I>, has just<BR>=
been published<BR>***********************************************</FONT></DI=
V></BODY></HTML>
-------------------------------1079756780--
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
To post, send message to Conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/conlawprof
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: tushnet.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 247 bytes
Desc: Card for Mark Tushnet <tushnet at law.georgetown.edu>
Url : http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/private/conlawprof/attachments/20040320/b5a0db07/tushnet.vcf
More information about the Conlawprof
mailing list