Whether you agree with the exceptions to the First Amendment or not, there is little doubt that this is not a “true threat” and thus is protected speech.
The writer is a English prof at Wayne State University. After this was posted, his dean suspended him. What about his academic freedom? As Keith Whittington explains, it’s covered there as well.
Wayne State, like many universities, has adopted the language American Association of University Professors’ 1940 Statement on Academic Freedom. Under that policy, when speaking in public as a citizen a professor should be free from institutional censorship or discipline. Once the police investigation concludes, the professor’s suspension should be lifted.
But this assertion wasn’t a controversial academic theory. It wasn’t a political view. It was extolling the virtue of murder over protest. Does that change anything? Should it? Law prof Eric Segall argued that when it involves violence, it should, but then the use of violence as hyperbolic expression on social media is hardly unusual.
Yet, does this tell Wayne State that an academic on its campus is not someone who should be instructing students, or allowed anywhere near students for that matter? Does adherence to the principles of free speech and academic freedom preclude any action when a professor publicly expounds on the virtues of murder?
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