Stanford Law student protestors need lesson in First Amendment

Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash

Recently, a federal judge asked to speak at Stanford University by the Federalist Society created a bit of a stink.

Well, the judge didn’t so much as all the spoiled children who decided the judge shouldn’t have been invited in the first place.

That includes at least one staff member.

I’m sure you’ve heard all about it by now. If not, here’s Fox News with a brief recap:

Last week, students at Stanford Law disrupted a Federalist Society event that featured U.S. Circuit Court Judge Kyle Duncan. Duncan was prevented from speaking by unruly protesters and berated by the school's associate dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Simple enough.

So why am I talking about it now? Well, because some of the student protestors are a bit upset about the coverage of the protest.

From the same story:

Now, some of the protest leaders, many of whom shared the names and pictures of Federalist Society members online and in posters, are unhappy because the Washington Free Beacon published their names.

"NEW: The same students who plastered the names and faces of the Stanford Federalist Society all over the school are now demanding anonymity from the Free Beacon. They say we've violated their right to privacy by identifying them. You can't make it up," Aaron Sibarium, a journalist for the Washington Free Beacon, tweeted Friday. 

"On Sunday, I identified board members of the Stanford National Lawyers Guild--one of the groups responsible for the posters--who in a public statement described the protest as 'Stanford Law School at its best.' A few hours later, the board demanded I redact their names," Sibarium reported.

Lily Bou, one of the board members of that “guild,” argued their names should be removed because it serves no purpose but to invite abuse.

Except, as noted, they were more than thrilled to publicize the names of members of the Stanford Federalist Society. Just because it wasn’t electronic doesn’t make it appreciably any different.

And I hate to sound like “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” and all that, but one would imagine that if they actually believed their actions were righteous, they wouldn’t be so concerned.

The problem here is that these supposed law students need a serious lesson in the First Amendment.

For one thing, these are ringleaders for a protest that became a national story. Their names are most definitely of public interest. This isn’t doxxing, it’s merely identifying the players for the public. Had the Free Beacon included addresses and/or phone numbers, they might have had reason to be upset, but they didn’t.

Moreover, as someone who has written for the Free Beacon before, I can say with a great deal of confidence that they wouldn’t go that far.

But the individuals’ identities are of public interest. There’s a reason they were, in fact, published.

Yet the Stanford students’ stupidity didn’t stop there.

They also claimed that Sibarium, the Free Beacon reporter, didn’t have permission to quote any part of the email she sent.

Sibarium noted that wasn’t how the First Amendment worked, and he was right.

Freedom of the press is essential to a free society. Even if the press is busy sucking up to the government, the media has to be free to report on matters of public interest. What happened at Stanford last week was, in fact, of public interest because it’s yet another example of the screeching left throwing a temper tantrum because someone has the wrong opinion.

Now they’re upset that they might have to answer for that tantrum to a future employer who googles their names.

Whoops.

Sorry, I’m not losing sleep over their troubles.

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