Free speech group says University of Colorado Boulder’s response to visiting professor violates First Amendment
(The Center Square) – A free speech advocacy group sent a letter to the University of Colorado Boulder on Wednesday saying its response to visiting professor John Eastman’s speech at a Trump rally last month violates the First Amendment.
The letter from the Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) to Chancellor Philip DiStefano says the public university’s response to Eastman “exceeds the boundaries permitted to it by the First Amendment and cannot be justified by the rationales proffered by the university.”
Eastman, who is a visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy at the university’s Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization, spoke at a Trump rally on Jan. 6, prior to the U.S. Capitol riot that took place later that day. Eastman was not at the riot, according to FIRE.
Eastman’s speech, which mostly focused on the Trump campaign’s allegations of election fraud, was publicly criticized, leading to the university canceling his classes, prohibiting him from doing outreach as part of the center, and saying his contract would not be extended.
While the letter cited comments from university officials condemning Eastman, they also acknowledged his speech did not encourage violence and was protected by the First Amendment.
Professor Daniel Jacobson, director of the Benson Center, dismissed Eastman’s election fraud claims, but that CU Boulder “defends the right of its scholars to express unpopular opinions within the limits of the law.”
CU Boulder’s response, however, conflicts with its legal obligations to follow the First Amendment, argued FIRE, which otherwise gives the university a “green light” rating for free speech.
“The university’s rationales for punishing professor Eastman are fundamentally at odds with the basic principles of free expression,” FIRE attorney Adam Steinbaugh said in a statement. “If donor interests, public anger, reputation, or administrators’ ire are sufficient to grant the institution the authority to punish members of its faculty, then only speech popular with donors, the public, and administrators is protected. This inverts the purpose of the First Amendment.”
The letter, which calls for the university to rescind its sanctions on the visiting professor, also questions the university’s claims that Eastman’s classes were canceled “due to lack of enrollment,” noting it couldn’t find a any such policy.
As part of the letter, Eastman, who earlier this year also retired as a tenured law professor at Chapman University in California, signed a waiver allowing CU Boulder to release personal information on his employment.
CU Boulder did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.
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