Campus Unrest: The Legal Framework

Robert A. Levy

The challenge for those persons charged with controlling campus unrest is to safeguard protesters’ right to free speech while ensuring that they don’t infringe on the equal rights of others. The difficulties are twofold: First, to identify and enforce legitimate limitations on protected speech; and second, to properly delineate those other rights that may not be violated.

We begin by examining the First Amendment. It directs that “Congress shall make no law …...