Minneapolis resonated more than past outrages. Why?

By Gregory P. Magarian, Thomas and Karole Green Professor of Law, Washington University in St. Louis.

The president announces an aggressive, controversial policy. Large groups of protesters take to the streets. Government agents open fire and kill protesters.

All of these events, familiar from Minneapolis in 2026, also played out at Ohio’s Kent State University in 1970. In my academic writing about the First Amendment, I have described Kent State as a key moment when the government silenced free speech.