The argument over codes fits into an old political and philosophical
division between libertarians and egalitarians. The libertarians
stress freedom from constraint from government and the egalitarians
stress equality of various kinds (equal rights or equal opportunities
or equal shares of the good things most of us want).
Both liberty and equality are valuable things and we must balance
the value we put on each so as not to take away too much of the
other.
On campus and in society at large, the stress on protecting liberty
of speech has gone too far when it threatens equal rights to state
education and reinforces a caste structure in society. That's
when we have to adjust the balance in favor of equality.
Here's another question to think about. What if certain kinds
of equality are a precondition for effective freedom of expression?
And what if we don't have that necessary equality? Then we need
to create it before we can claim to have freedom of expression
for everyone. Maybe that's our job on this campus?
Reference: For thoughts on equality as a precondition for
effective speech, see Richard Delgado's article "First Amendment
Formalism is Giving Way to First Amendment Legal Realism"
in The Price We Pay edited by Lederer and Delgado.
Speaking)