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Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard and the founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School. He is the author of hundreds of articles and dozens of books, including Impeachment: A Citizen’s Guide, Nudge (with Richard Thaler), Law and Leviathan (with Adrian Vermeule), How to Interpret the Constitution, On Freedom, and Can It Happen Here? Authoritarianism in America. He is a recipient of the Holberg Prize, sometimes described as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for the humanities and social sciences.[Sunstein] pledges himself to thinking through what the law can and cannot do on the matter of speech rights at universities. With admirable clarity and efficiency, he informs us on what the law says, for example, about when speech does or doesn’t constitute intimidation or harassment.
- Bruce Robbins, The Nation
Campus free speech has suddenly become an issue on everyone’s mind, featured in headlines about campus disruptions, controversial congressional testimony, and loss of trust in our institutions of higher education. Yet few people can articulate a coherent policy about free speech at colleges and universities. To the rescue comes Cass Sunstein, with a succinct and comprehensive primer. Clear, erudite, and to the point, <i>Campus Free Speech</i> lays out the underlying principles and the easy and hard cases. Read this book and you’ll know what you’re talking about when you talk about free speech and academic freedom.
- Steven Pinker, author of <i>Rationality</i> and <i>Enlightenment Now</i>,
A thoughtful, fair-minded, and concise analysis by one of America’s top legal scholars. Highly recommended for anyone interested in today’s campus free speech controversies.
- Eugene Volokh, cofounder of <i>The Volokh Conspiracy</i>,
At a time of national crisis regarding free speech on college and university campuses, Cass Sunstein’s <i>Campus Free Speech </i>offers a truly brilliant and readily accessible analysis of how academic administrators, faculty, students, alumni, legislators, and others should think about these deeply troubling issues. No one interested in these challenges to our nation and its future should fail to read this book.
- Geoffrey R. Stone, author of <i>Perilous Times</i>,
With this brilliant little volume, Cass Sunstein has achieved the near impossible: taking an extraordinarily complex area of First Amendment law and synthesizing it into a crisp, useful, and intellectually stimulating set of answers to free speech issues we see daily on America’s college and university campuses. By any standard, a tour de force.
- Lee C. Bollinger, author of <i>Uninhibited, Robust, and Wide-Open</i>,
A clear understanding of allowable campus speech in Canada is long overdue. Until a Canadian manual comes along, every Canadian university and College president should have a copy of <i>Campus Free Speech</i>.
- Patrick Luciani, The Hub
A Forbes Best Higher Education Book of the Year
From renowned legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein, a concise, case-by-case guide to resolving free-speech dilemmas at colleges and universities.
Free speech is indispensable on college campuses: allowing varied views and frank exchanges of opinion is a core component of the educational enterprise and the pursuit of truth. But free speech does not mean a free-for-all. The First Amendment prohibits “abridging the freedom of speech,” yet laws against perjury or bribery, for example, are still constitutional. In the same way, valuing freedom of speech does not stop a university from regulating speech when doing so is necessary for its educational mission. So where is the dividing line? How can we distinguish reasonable restrictions from impermissible infringement?
In this pragmatic, no-nonsense explainer, Cass Sunstein takes us through a wide range of scenarios involving students, professors, and administrators. He discusses why it’s consistent with the First Amendment to punish students who shout down a speaker, but not those who chant offensive slogans; why a professor cannot be fired for writing a politically charged op-ed, yet a university might legitimately consider an applicant’s political views when deciding whether to hire her. He explains why private universities are not legally bound by the First Amendment yet should, in most cases, look to follow it. And he addresses the thorny question of whether a university should officially take sides on public issues or deliberately keep the institution outside the fray.
At a time when universities are assailed on free-speech grounds from both left and right, Campus Free Speech: A Pocket Guide is an indispensable resource for cutting through the noise and understanding the key issues animating the debates.