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The Legality of Deporting Campus Protestors?
A freedom of speech primer
People without law degrees often are quick to offer up their opinions on whether the Constitution protects what they consider hate speech.
Not coincidentally, people who want the speech to stop claim it isn’t protected, and people who want the speech to continue think it is.
Most get the nuances wrong.
That brings us to a question on many of our minds.
Is the Trump administration’s decision to deport students and others here on visas when they engage in anti-Israel protests on campuses legal or not?
Our right to free speech is broad, but it’s not limitless.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution addresses free speech head on:
“Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble…”
Courts have interpreted this not just as prohibiting Congress from making laws; the entire government is barred from stopping speech through the police or any other body.
Through the 14th Amendment, the right of free speech extends to states and local governments. They also are barred from stopping protected speech.
