Free Speech on Campus by Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman

Abstract

Free speech on college and university campuses in the United States is a complex topic with competing and conflicting rights, governing body responsibilities, goals, legal precedents, popular views, and purposes. To untangle all of this requires both attention to fine legal points and a broad view of societal needs. Chemerinsky and Gillman have the expertise and experience to bring both these characteristics to bear on discussions of this topic, but they do much more: they outline specific policies that can and should be followed by universities and colleges in seeking to provide the best of higher education. Chemerinsky (The Conservative Assault on the Constitution, The Case Against the Supreme Court, Closing the Courthouse Door: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable) and Gillman (American Constitutionalism: Structures of Government, The Votes that Counted: How the Court Decided the 2000 Presidential Election) have distinguished positions at the University of California, Irvine, School of Law and taught an undergraduate seminar on Free Speech on College Campuses in 2016. Their combined voices bring a clarity and, surprisingly, brevity to this topic that are rare.