Joe Martins: It’s about time: UC-Irvine defends free speech by disciplining hecklers

ADF Attorney Joe Martins writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “”[UC-Irvine's] is just the latest in a long line of campus incidents in which student organizations have disrupted or even assaulted speakers to silence their message. . . . What has not been characteristic of such disruptions however, is an appropriate university response. . . . But UCI distinguished itself by actually disciplining the Muslim Student Union for its planned and coordinated disruption of Ambassador Oren’s speech. UCI suspended the group for a year and imposed fifty hours of community service. In doing so, UCI sent a message that it will not tolerate a ‘heckler’s veto’ on free speech. The Muslim Student Union has—as do all student groups— the right to counter speech it abhors at an appropriate time, place and manner. But that right does not include the ability to disrupt and intimidate others into silence.”