The University of Oklahoma continued its annual celebration of Free Speech Week with a keynote discussion led by Nadine Strossen, the John Marshall II Harlan Professor of Law Emerita at New York Law School and past president of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Strossen’s lecture, “When Can Government Restrict Speech?” dealt with many questions surrounding the First Amendment and its application. Dr. Jeremy Bailey, the Sanders Chair in Law and Liberty and Director of the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage at OU, joined Strossen by posing questions for a back-and-forth.
“Freedom of Speech has always been embattled,” Strossen said. “Just about everyone believes in freedom of speech for ‘me’ but not for ‘thee.’”
Strossen, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, reiterated that every form of speech, even those characterized as “hate speech,” must be protected to encourage a free society. She described it as an imperative, “Not only for individual self-fulfillment, but also the essential prerequisite for protecting every other human right and cause.”