At first, Clemson University took a stand for free speech. It condemned employees’ remarks that made light of Charlie Kirk’s death on social media, but the school said it was committed to protecting the Constitution. Three days later, under pressure from conservatives in the Statehouse, it fired one of the employees. As an outcry grew and the White House took interest, it fired two more.
The swift developments at the public university in South Carolina reflect the intense pressure on college leaders nationwide to police insensitive comments about the conservative activist’s assassination, which leaves them with no easy choices.
Colleges can defy the Republican backlash and defend their employees’ speech rights, risking the kind of federal attention that has prompted billions of dollars in cuts at Harvard and other universities. Or they can bow to the pressure and risk what some scholars see as a historic erosion of campus speech rights.
Read more at AP News.
