Turley: ‘We Don’t Need the First Amendment To Protect Popular Speech’

RUSH EXCERPT:

MacCALLUM: "Here’s Jonathan Turley, constitutional law attorney, and professor at George Washington university. Good to have you. You can see why the institutions are concerned. The police are reluctant, they call it the Ferguson effect, to step in. Is it okay if these universities cancel these appearances?"
TURLEY: "Frankly, I think it’s problematic. We saw this before the recent tragedy. Schools like Depaul university in Chicago, other schools, started to, instead of saying they didn’t want a speaker, like the conservative speaker on campus, they started to cancel them by saying they’re worried about public safety, counter demonstrators. And that has become an easy way to bar conservatives, and people that have opposition. Those are the type of people, quite frankly, that generate a lot of discussion on an academic setting. It’s true they come with great risk. When student groups ask them in, they have a right to be heard. And there is a concern that many of us in the free speech community has for this new mantra, Nancy Pelosi said yesterday she wanted a permit reviewed of a group appearing in San Francisco, because of, quote, public safety concerns. What are those? And who makes those decisions?"