The Roberts Court and Academic Freedom

Autor/in	Rahdert, Mark C.
Titel	The Roberts Court and Academic Freedom
Quelle	In: Chronicle of Higher Education, 53 (2007) 47, (1 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0009-5982
Schlagwörter	Stellungnahme; Academic Freedom; Court Litigation; Federal Courts; Higher Education; Constitutional Law; Freedom of Speech; Institutional Autonomy + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Akademische Freiheit; Rechtsstreit; Bundesgerichtshof; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Staatsrecht; Redefreiheit; Institutionelle Autonomie
Abstract	Since President Bush named Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court, speculation has run high as to where the new court may be headed. Citing three recent cases ("Morse v. Frederick", "Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, Inc." and "Garcetti v. Ceballos"), Rahdert expresses concern that current court decisions are limiting free speech in ways that could adversely affect higher education. The author views these decisions as a retraction of constitutional protection for academic debate and inquiry, maintaining that the logic of the arguments support punishing student speech that conflicts with important institutional values, punishing faculty speech that occurs in the course of employment, and punishing the university itself if it fails to comply with external commands regarding the conduct of its auxiliary activities. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, public reaction to the dangers of international terrorism generated an atmosphere of intolerance for political dissent. Higher education, with its concentrations of foreign students and scholars, became a visible and vulnerable target. Rahdert likens this atmosphere with that of sixty years ago, when the United States faced the looming threat of international Communism, and sets forward the idea that the current period has produced similar proposals for academic bills of rights that, in fact, limit university autonomy in setting policies toward academic freedom. Noting that the Supreme Court played an important role in finally bringing the McCarthy period to an end with a series of decisions that extended the protections of the First Amendment to activities of central importance to academe, Rahdert is less hopeful that higher education will receive similar backing from the Roberts court. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Chronicle of Higher Education. 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: 800-728-2803; e-mail: circulation@chronicle.com; Web site: http://chronicle.com/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10