Quote:
Originally Posted by Bladesman87
I feel like there's going to be some follow up here, so can someone clarify for me if in fact students at US universities can invited whoever to say whatever and the university is legally obligated to provide the time and money to make that happen?
Seems like a bad system to me.
As far as I know, this is correct. Student groups are allowed to invite whomever they please and the University is obligated to provide a space. This makes sense in that you want free inquiry and don't want the government deciding what is and isn't an appropriate idea.
However, that doesn't mean that the university couldn't argue that certain speakers would create mayhem that could be too dangerous or too onerous. If Berkeley Republicans start inviting every commenter from St0rmfr0nt to speak, then the subsequent protests and disruptions would cost millions and millions of dollars. Berkeley could then create a rule respecting speakers that sought to relieve the burden without singling out any particular ideology. This would be challenged in the courts, of course.
In this case it appears Berkeley cancelled the appearance because of safety concerns, claiming that they could not find a venue that would provide appropriate security on the date in question and that they had specific evidence of threats. If those are both true, then that seems perfectly reasonable. There is no first amendment right to conduct a speech on a specific date or at a specific time. The university is now willing to allow Coulter to speak on a different date, so there doesn't seem to be a first amendment issue anymore.
Are they lying about the threats, the venues and etc.? Maybe, but I'm not aware of any evidence. If they did lie, then they would almost certainly lose a lawsuit.