Campus

Liberal Students Call for ‘Protesting, Disrupting and/or Silencing’ Upcoming Speech by Conservative Justice

Justice Antonin Scalia will be taking a step outside the rarefied realm of Washington, DC legal theory this Thursday to deliver a speech to students at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT on the topic of free speech. Given the way those students are reacting, he may find they need it more than he realizes. Today, just two days before Scalia’s arrival, a coalition of students authored no less than four different letters to the school paper, the Wesleyan Argus, calling for Scalia to be silenced by protesters and/or blocked from speaking on-campus.

The headlines alone speak volumes. One reads, “Wesleyan Deserves Better Than Scalia.” Another reads, “The Moral Duty of Opposing Scalia’s Corruption.” Yet another reads, “Asserting the Norm: Chief (sic) Justice Antonin Scalia.” And perhaps the crowning jewel reads, “The Value of Protesting, Disrupting and/or Silencing Antonin Scalia.”

Here are some of the “highlights” of the four articles, with emphasis added. From “Wesleyan Deserves Better Than Scalia”:

It is ridiculous for Wesleyan to bring Antonin Scalia to speak at a lecture devoted to freedom of speech. He doesn’t believe that prisoners captured as part of the “War on Terror” have the right to legal representation. He supports physical torture as an interrogation tactic. He is openly committed to diminishing reproductive health rights. I can only wonder whose freedom of expression he is interested in protecting through his work with the Supreme Court. Those who can become unintentionally pregnant, those who are disempowered by colonialist political and military actions, and those who find themselves in conflict with law enforcement officers are not being served.[...]

To those who have tickets: give him hell. President Roth says he hopes this will be an educational opportunity, so it’s up to you to give Scalia the opportunity to learn something about Wesleyan, and about freedom of expression.

From “The Moral Duty of Opposing Scalia’s Corruption”:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia not only has the distinction of using his position to defend anti-sodomy laws, to aid in the unleashing of a torrent of corporate money onto our elections, to argue in favor of the execution of minors, and to appoint (sic) George Bush as President, he has also been the focus of three corruption scandals in the past decade.  Antonin Scalia is not merely a powerful player in the United States government with whom many members of the Wesleyan community disagree–he is a powerful player in the United States government who uses the privilege of his position to his own (and his political compatriots’) advantage, in an ethically and legally questionable manner that harms what small amount of democratic integrity the government might claim.[...]

Scalia has excelled at pushing the boundaries of what is legally and ethically acceptable, without obviously going beyond them.  The amount of room he has to do this raises some broader questions about the system in which he operates.  Why do the existing laws allow Justice Scalia to have so much ethical wiggle room?  Why have there not been consequences for these ethical indiscretions?  More broadly, and more importantly, why as a society do we choose to give any one person so much power that wining and dining them threatens the democratic integrity of our system of governance as a whole?

From “Asserting the Norm: Chief (sic) Justice Antonin Scalia”:

Justice Antonin Scalia represents some of the worst in institutional oppression America has to offer. While giving a talk at the Woodrow Wilson International School for Scholars, he defines his analytical framework of originalism: “Our manner of interpreting the Constitution is to begin with the text, and to give that text the meaning that it bore when it was adopted by the people.”[...]

The people in this context are of course white, property-owning males and not the nation as a whole. In embracing and romanticizing the founding of the United States, Justice Scalia asserts the white property-owning male as the authoritative norm. This overarching power marginalizes all others who do not fit this category as having a tainted or biased opinion.[...]

[Justice Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing] was a reminder that opinions can never be completely objective or true. In striving for original meaning in the constitution, Justice Scalia operates through an unacknowledged lens of whiteness and power that is accepted as original and unbiased. He also conjures an American and deeply historical vision of white male domination, and suffering on behalf of all others.

From “The Value of Protesting, Disrupting and/or Silencing Antonin Scalia”:

I find it extremely disappointing that so many students on this campus have such an uncritical attitude towards illegitimate authority structures like the Supreme Court and are even more militant against any form of organized, disruptive dissent expressed towards these structures. [...]

Liberal students say that there is an inherent value in hearing other people’s perspectives in a democracy. I agree, but I already know Scalia’s perspective and so do most people who will be at the lecture – you can read about it on Wikipedia or watch him on Youtube giving what will likely be a basically similar speech as the one he will give to us. Scalia’s perspective is well established in the discourses of the media and in the communities and homes that many of us students come from. I and other students have heard enough white supremacist capitalist patriarchy dressed up in rational discourse and we think that these ideas need to be challenged openly. [...]

With that said, I urge you to abandon your wimpy liberal notions of decorum and propriety as they only serve to validate existing authoritarian hierarchies that are responsible daily for the (living) deaths of marginalized peoples. Let’s give Scalia a real Wesleyan Welcome and remind him that his power is illegitimate and ultimately subject to the rage of the people his power subordinates.

Nor are these the only letters these students have written. Another, from yesterday, is titled “Occupy Scalia, Decolonize Wesleyan,” and includes the following lines:

If you consider yourself committed to the abolition of institutionalized violence, and for the realization of true justice from below, we implore you to express your dissent on the day of Scalia’s arrival, in whatever way is best for you and your community (chalking, protesting, organizing counter-events, hosting critical discussions, organizing justice-oriented events, etc.).  In essence, we call on all people of conscience to “Occupy Scalia.”[...]

Even Wesleyan’s claim to “Diversity University”—which has been shamefully distorted to justify Scalia’s presence and to erase from view his violent impacts by our dear President Roth—carries a white supremacist attitude, since so many diversity initiatives are mainly implemented to benefit the expanded learning environment of the white, heterosexual, wealthy male crowd for whom this institution was built.

These students do not necessarily speak for the whole student body, however. One student who asked not to be named in this article told the Blaze that he hoped Scalia would bring a security detail, as “some f–kers are bound to engage in the barbarism they preach.” Moreover, when Scalia’s visit was first announced last year, the response was largely positive, according to an article in the same paper.

Wesleyan, despite holding a liberal reputation widely, has mostly stayed out of the national spotlight since then-Senator Obama delivered its commencement address in 2008. However, Andrew Breitbart twice singledout Wesleyan for criticism as one of the fonts of liberal sentiment in the media. In his speech to CPAC this year, Breitbart said:

And that is who’s in the White House. And that’s . . . who would squelch your free speech just as easily as they do at Harvard, Vassar, Yale, Wesleyan—they’re a bunch of totalitarian freaks! And they pal around with our friends in the mainstream media.”

Similarly, in February of 2010, Breitbart said this:

Bad, racist, homophobic—all those buzzwords that they learned in their freshman orientation class at Wesleyan—are used as weapons to try to destroy you and intimidate you to not speak up.

So can the “totalitarian freaks” shut Scalia up? Weigh in below.

(Full disclosure: This author is a 2010 graduate of Wesleyan University)

Comments (43)

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  • dnha14
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 5:18pm

    What part of squashing speech do these highly educated liberals, that attend highly esteemed universities, think is not totalitarian in nature? Liberal fascism at its finest is on display. (Hat tip to Mr. Goldberg for the phrase.) It is absolutely stunning that they can not see through their own stupidity. I know they test to IQ’s of 120 and above, but they act like they scored 12. Bill Maher had it right. Half of America IS stupid. Only, he was referring to the wrong half.

    Report Post »  
  • sasquatch08
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 4:27pm

    This is what I love about the hard left: they love free speech right up until you say something they disagree with, then it’s time for you to be silenced.

    Sounds an awful lot like Mao‘s China or Stalin’s USSR to me.

    Report Post »  
  • voodoolife
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 4:14pm

    It is ridiculous for Wesleyan to bring Antonin Scalia to speak at a lecture devoted to freedom of speech. So we are going to silence him! LOL! What a bunch of idiots…

    Report Post » voodoolife  
  • Windsong
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 2:38pm

    These ‘students’ are exactly that. I realize that they – and their Communist/Marxist/Socialist professors believe that they are smarter than anyone else in this Republic, but they are truly too uneducated in the history of this Nation to understand what they are doing.
    What would happen, ‘students’, if all of your classes, symposiums and speeches by those on the left were shouted down, disrupted and/or cancelled?

    You are quite willing to close down the freedoms and rights of others. God forbid you should learn anything from various speakers, or worse, get a differing opinion other than what you have been indoctinated with. Lord help you if you should stumble upon actual facts about the true history of the Founders, this Republic (not to be confused with a democracy, like in Venezuela), actual Black history,etc.

    By disrespecting a Supreme Court Judge, you give permission to anyone who doesn’t share your belief, to disrupt and shout down anyone who does share your ideology. That way, everyone will have tunnel vision and never know opposing sides on anything. They like it that way in China and Russia, of course, which is why no one in either of those countries has any rights, including freedom of speech.
    So, students, you want freedom of speech, yet you don’t want me to have freedom of speech. What does that make you…besides a slave with no rights?

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  • DIR
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 2:14pm

    The concept of free speech is so distorted and most often misunderstood. These college protesters are idiots. Disrupting a speaking engagement isn’t practicing their free speech, amongst other things its disturbing the peace.

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    • EchoHawk
      Posted on March 7, 2012 at 3:07pm

      The conservative definition of free speech according to DIR, if my definition of free speech agrees with yours then it is in fact free speech, if my conservative definition of free speech opposes yours and offends my tender conservative sensibilities , you’re breaking the law.

      Report Post »  
    • sasquatch08
      Posted on March 7, 2012 at 4:33pm

      @ Echohawk:

      And according to these moron students; you have free speech as long as you espouse liberal policies and ideals, if not you should be shouted down or otherwise silenced.

      Get it straight; there are those on the left (and some on the right to be sure) who don’t believe you have the right to say something they disagree with, and they will make an effort to stop you.

      At the worst, this shows a stunning lack of understanding of free speech. At BEST it shows they’r a bunch of uncivilized jerks.

      I pine for the days when people said things like “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” – Evelyn Beatrice Hall.

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  • gbrittain
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 1:38pm

    Parents, do you want to pay tens of thousands of dollars per year to have your kids taught, i.e. indoctrinated, with this leftist dribble?

    Students, do you want to pay tens of thousands of dollars per year to be indoctrinated with this leftist dribble, or at least have to listen to it and regurgitate on exams?

    I think there is a market opening. It is possible to provide better college education at a much lower cost than traditional brick and mortar universities, and without the leftist dribble.

    Report Post »  
    • EchoHawk
      Posted on March 7, 2012 at 3:02pm

      Can someone help out gbrittain? He’s dribbled all over himself.

      Report Post »  
    • Go Glenn
      Posted on March 7, 2012 at 3:44pm

      “Parents, do you want to pay tens of thousands of dollars per year to have your kids taught, i.e. indoctrinated, with this leftist dribble?”—-DUH no, we want the gubment to pay fer ar yungins skoolin. We’s are in titled.

      “Students, do you want to pay tens of thousands of dollars per year to be indoctrinated with this leftist dribble, or at least have to listen to it and regurgitate on exams?”–Naw, we be wantin a job dat payz a bunch wif out no skoolin. Yall gots a hi dolla job and we’s be wantin ones two.

      Report Post »  
  • EchoHawk
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 1:38pm

    That’s a great picture of Scalia. “Where am I and what am I doing here?”

    Report Post »  
  • Eraldo NY Tea Party
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 1:37pm

    Let”s win this one for Scalia.

    Let”s fight with theirs tactics

    God bless you all

    Report Post » Eraldo NY Tea Party  
  • gbrittain
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 1:34pm

    Less there be any doubt, liberty is not value of the left.

    Report Post »  
  • Eraldo NY Tea Party
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 1:33pm

    We must win this time.

    Let”s be intolerant with the liberal intolerance

    Let”s play theirs game and win, because we are the majority.

    Let”s do it now wile we still the majority, remember the 45% that don”t pay federal income taxes, when pass over 50% forget it about.

    Jobs to NYC

    God bless

    Report Post » Eraldo NY Tea Party  
    • EchoHawk
      Posted on March 7, 2012 at 1:44pm

      Eraldo NY Tea Party
      Posted on March 7, 2012 at 1:33pm

      “Let”s be intolerant with the liberal intolerance”

      That particular ship has sailed.

      “Let”s play theirs game and win, because we are the majority.”

      What the he!! have you been doing and where did you learn to count? By your calculus you should have instituted your tyranny by now.

      Report Post »  
  • BaltimoreJoe
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 1:32pm

    I’m more concerned about how dense these kids are….
    I can understand a youngster with no real experience feeling the way they do but I cannot understand why they are likewise puking on Obama for all the same reasons…
    Dem Hse/Senate passed Patriot Act virtually unchanged..
    Barry murdered a U.S. Citizen with a drone who hadn’t even an active warrant at the time…
    GitMo still there….
    Barry signed NDAA which does away with every post arrest right..
    Made non-recess recess apptmnts….
    Justice Dept sent thousands of guns into Mex just to blame 2nd amd. for the carnage.
    His Eng Czar on youtube says they have to figure a way to raise gas to $7-9/gallon..
    Soros gave more $$ to the dems before he became a U.S. citizen than all Rep superpacs to date..
    He’s continued thereafter…
    Really the list just goes on and on. Perhaps it would be JUST GRAND for a sitting Justice to be harassed by the left…I even felt some good came of the recent attack on an island on another Justice..

    They need to understand how dangerous the left has become.
    BHo’s gotta go.

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  • Eraldo NY Tea Party
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 1:29pm

    Let”s Us pray for Scallia

    Jesus Our Lord, bring light to this kids.

    They will not silence us.

    Call me names, if you want, but He is with Us.

    God bless you.

    Report Post » Eraldo NY Tea Party  
  • justangry
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:57pm

    He and Thomas are my favorite Justices. These clowns are protesting originalsim, and they probably don’t know what it even is. If someone explained it to them, they‘d probably say that’s how a Justice should interpret the Constitution.

    Report Post » justangry  
    • progressiveslayer
      Posted on March 7, 2012 at 3:34pm

      All those idiots know is ‘social justice’ which has no place in our constitutional republic,that is practiced in socialist countries like Greece and we see how well that’s working out.

      Report Post » progressiveslayer  
  • Ne_FAL
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:45pm

    Nothing so tolerant as a liberal you have to agree with them or the silly bastards try to start a riot . Now if the first words out of Justice Scalia‘s mouth are basically reminding the students that you can’t have free speech when the leftists are more interested in denying free speech to those that don’t march in lock step with them & point out that the local communist rabble prove his point . Does anyone think the rabble will understand the ideas he is putting forth.

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  • dontbotherme
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:43pm

    Hmmm…. silencing speech. This man has a lot to teach & these kids have A LOT TO LEARN. Is this collegiate generation completely lost? God help them. I hope & pray that their attempts to squelch freedom fail.

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  • PJSolarz
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:38pm

    [Defending the Truth] hit it where it matters suggesting these protestors read the constuitution before sounding off. This is where the problem lies, none of these so called institutions of higher learning never actually study the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence . The liberal instructors favor creating a utopian world of dolts, giving college credit for subjects like: “Arguing with Judge Judy” or the study of the “Klingon Language” or “The Phallus”

    Report Post » PJSolarz  
  • Walkabout
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:34pm

    shouting down opposing point of views has been done by the Bolsheviks since before the bolshevik revolution. It was literally part of the Bolshevik playbook.

    Consider their were divergent ways of implementing socialism or communism. There were the Menesheviks & Bolsheviks. With the left sooner or later there can only be one way. If you do not follow it you are executed. Trotsky was executed. He was a die hard leftist. That wasn‘t all Stalin’s doing. Why did the Bolsheviks marginalize & exterminate every other leftist party.

    It is a leftist tactic.

    Report Post »  
  • HuskerDave
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:32pm

    Students want to assert their free speech rights to stop the free speech of another person, at a lecture about free speech.

    The leftist hypocrisy is nearly head-splitting! (I realize ‘leftist’ and ‘hypocrite’ is redundant)

    Report Post »  
  • elosogrande
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:28pm

    One of the comment is that many at Wesleyan don’t agree with Scalia, so I guess it’s alright to limit his free speech. What about the many who might agree with Scalia. Do those people have the right to limit the free speech of those who want to protest. If Wesleyan is “fair”, the university must allow those agreeing with Scalia to limit the free speech of the protestors.

    There was also so babble about being able to end unintended pregnancies. I bellieve that is all really settled law at this point, but I would like to add one thought. If you are in oyur late teens or older, and you end up with an unintended pregnancy, you are probably too stupid to be going to college, and certainly too stupid to be enlarging your own gene pool. Get your tubes tied or a vasectomy. There are too many fools in this country right now. Please don’t breed any more.

    Report Post »  
  • Brontefan
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:24pm

    If you can’t debate with facts, and you haven’t the knowledge to articulate your argument… then, what else can they do but sling mud, personald attacks and protest?

    Report Post »  
  • AN OLD AMERICAN
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:17pm

    Until America comes to realize that it lost it‘s freedom when it gave up it’s standard of morality.No more need to allow free speech,steal,get all you can and think you deserve it regardless of others.Without a moral code we’re just another animal on planet earth.When we seek truth,freedom is the result for everyone.The agenda today is to “CONTROL” the people not free them.

    Report Post »  
    • jhrusky
      Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:28pm

      The problem here is that this works! Liberals shouting down and preventing the free speech of their opposition seems to be OK anymore. While this is a terrible way to act, if no one is going to do a damn thing about it then conservatives had better get on this bandwagon recognizing that it IS working for the liberals. When you are down, you fight fire with fire. Let’s see how much they like their policies tossed back in their faces! They know that conservatives typically won’t resort to these tactics so they smirk about how they are preventing the free speech of conservatives (and they are).

      Our time is short – we had better win this war and a war it is.

      WOLVERINES!

      Report Post » jhrusky  
  • zippster
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:15pm

    Scalia should just blow of Wesleyan. They’re all a bunch of ********.

    Report Post »  
  • Defending Truth
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:13pm

    To call for the silencing of a Supreme Court justice coming to talk on freedom of speech is repugnant and shameful, no matter if it’s Justice Stevens or Scalia.

    If you don’t like the speaker, don’t cut class to go listen to him. Personal responsibility and thick skin has never been so rare in this country.

    Report Post »  
  • Alinskyrevenge
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:09pm

    These liberal freaks are NOT the arbiters of who speaks and who does not. If they want to silence speech by any disruption verbal or physical, then the need to be silenced in the way that’s universally recognized. By knocking their teeth out. There’s no restriction on free speech, but there IS a restriction on the suppression of free speech.

    Report Post » Alinskyrevenge  
    • EchoHawk
      Posted on March 7, 2012 at 1:17pm

      To imply that the obviously conservative majority currently seated on the Supreme Court isn’t activist is disingenuous at best. Unfortunately for conservatives they will find that historically even conservative judges tend to become more liberal as their time on the bench extends.

      Report Post »  
  • ldaopines
    Posted on March 7, 2012 at 11:49am

    Yes, let‘s silence anyone we don’t agree with and force those who came to listen to ONLY HEAR US. Let’s shout them down! Let’s call their advertisers to shut them up!

    What country are we in again? The one with Free Speech?

    Report Post »  
    • Defending Truth
      Posted on March 7, 2012 at 11:58am

      Since when did my generation become such an intolerant and ignorant bunch of pompous punks? If these students read the Constitution (first) and studied the case law behind it (second), they might (although that’s a stretch with liberal mindedness) understand and see that Scalia is right on the money 99% of the time.

      Seriously, my generation makes me sick

      Report Post »  
    • Ne_FAL
      Posted on March 7, 2012 at 12:58pm

      You live in a post constitutional nation that is run by a govt. flunky class. Free speech is only for those who are well organized enough to shout down those who would silence them by shouting /threats /violence. don’t think what I say is true ,look at what the SEIU tried to do to the TEA Party in the beginning of the Obama junta ,people were getting beaten by Union thugs . Then folks started showing up with guns & stating that they had them to protect themselves from the Presidents union goons this goes out on the evening news & the WHITE HOUSE tells the union guys to mellow out . That is the kind of country you live in , a nation were free speech is only free if you are willing to fight for it with gun in hand.

      Report Post »  
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