Harvard University’s governing board rejected an effort from faculty Wednesday to allow a group of 13 students sanctioned due to their participation in pro-Palestine protests to receive their degre…
Well, technically, they do receive some government funding but the terms of the funds being allotted don’t include adherence to the first amendment. It’s not an entity controlled by state or federal government directly.
Businesses “follow the constitution” here. The nuance is that the first amendment (freedom of speech) explicitly only applies to consequences from government. As a private corporation, the people running Harvard have the right to their own speech, in this case: a policy denying graduation, without consequence from the government.
I in no way endorse the speech that Harvard is expressing, but I do have the right to impose my own consequences on them for it (I.E not supporting things they do financially, disparaging them in an online forum like Lemmy, etc). The constitution prevents the US government from punishing Harvard for these actions in the same ways, unless a law has explicitly been broken.
Well, technically, they do receive some government funding but the terms of the funds being allotted don’t include adherence to the first amendment. It’s not an entity controlled by state or federal government directly.
Then all gov’t funding should stop immediately.
If a business doesn’t want to follow the Constitution, it gets zero tax dollars.
Btw as a Canadian I’m amazed that private businesses have this option at all. It makes no logical sense.
Businesses “follow the constitution” here. The nuance is that the first amendment (freedom of speech) explicitly only applies to consequences from government. As a private corporation, the people running Harvard have the right to their own speech, in this case: a policy denying graduation, without consequence from the government.
I in no way endorse the speech that Harvard is expressing, but I do have the right to impose my own consequences on them for it (I.E not supporting things they do financially, disparaging them in an online forum like Lemmy, etc). The constitution prevents the US government from punishing Harvard for these actions in the same ways, unless a law has explicitly been broken.