Cancel Culture IS free speech, Harvard prof claims
At The College Fix, Gabrielle Temaat reports that Harvard law prof Randall Kennedy came up with an argument for disinviting a speaker as a form of free speech. In a debate on free speech with George Washington U law prof Jonathan Turley at the Steamboat Institute, he was asked about an op-ed in the Harvard Crimson, where he said, “Speaker disinvitations may often be objectionable. But students have every right to pursue them.” (February 29, 2024)
From The Fix:
Kennedy … also said that when university officials invite a speaker he doesn’t like, he asks them to rescind the invitation.
“Maybe I win, maybe I lose, but as a matter of principle, I don’t see why it is that the mere making of an invitation should stop discussion,” he said.
Further, Kennedy does not “approve of shouting down speakers,” but he does support “rally[ing] the community to urge the organizer of a speaking event to revoke an invitation.”
“Disinviting a speaker is free speech, Harvard law professor says,” (October 21, 2024)
Turley, a noted free speech advocate, noted that Harvard was dead last in a recent FIRE survey of free speech at universities. He later responded:
“Calling a cancel campaign ‘free speech’ does not alter its fundamentally anti-free speech purpose,” Turley told the Daily Caller after the debate.
“Technically, it is a form of speech but it is inimical to the very essence of free speech values in higher education. You are seeking to prevent opposing views from being heard on campus,” he said. “Harvard law professor says”
If disinviting speakers is free speech, is shutting out ideas the same thing as airing and refuting them?