Yesterday, William Downes, chief judge of the U. S. District Court in Wyoming, ordered the university to allow William Ayers to speak at a University facility. As one can read in this story from the Casper Wyoming newspaper, the judge, who was a Captain in the Marines when Ayers was in the Weather Underground, put it as bluntly as it could be put:
"This court is of age to remember the Weather Underground. When his group was bombing the U.S. Capitol in 1971, I was serving in the uniform of my country," Downes said. "Even to this day, when I hear that name, I can scarcely swallow the bile of my contempt for it. But Mr. Ayers is a citizen of the United States who wishes to speak, and he need not offer any more justification than that."
I had not seen this posted so I thought it worth a diary. Let me offer a few more comments below the fold.
One of the basic principles of the 1st Amendment protections of freedom of speech is that it protects unpopular speech. One does not have to agree with the message or the messenger, but government is not supposed to pick and choose which expressions are allowable and which are not. This should be especially true on a university campus, since a university should be a place where ideas of all kinds are explored and exposed to the disinfecting power of bright sunlight, as it were.
There is a statement (falsely) attributed to Voltaire: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. In a sense, that principle applies to the First Amendment. It is why we have the right to criticize the government, even in a time of war - after all, we do have elections in the midst of serious conflicts, as we did in 1864 and 1944 to cite but the two most notable examples.
Bill Ayers, was not convicted of a crime. He is now an acknowledged expert on matters of education, particularly urban education. He is a citizen of the United States, whose right to speak is equally as protected as are those of G. Gordon Liddy (a convicted felon) or anyone of any political persuasion.
As one who teaches government, and thus teaches the Constitution and Bill of Rights, I applied Judge Downes for the correctness of his decision and then clarity of his statement: Mr. Ayers is a citizen of the United States who wishes to speak, and he need not offer any more justification than that.
Peace.