Disruption
(John Speaking)

 
 
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We have to be very careful here. Campus protests against the Vietnamese war in the 60s and 70s may have interfered with some students in the pursuit of their studies. Sometimes they may have disrupted classes. Some students who were vets or had fathers in the military may have been deeply upset. Perhaps a few found the situation so unsettling that they dropped out of school or went somewhere else for an education. Does all that imply that these students had a right to have the protesters restricted or that the university should have done so? I don't think any of us think so.

The courts would never allow the university to forbid political demonstrations because they create these sorts of inconveniences. The disruption of university goals must be clear and significant. Otherwise, the university could ban lots of controversial demonstrations and lots of speech.


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