Bowman on The (Re)Definition of Free Speech @Prof_KBowman @MSUCollegeofEd

Kristine L. Bowman, Michigan State University, is publishing The (Re)Definition of Free Speech in volume 38 of the Journal of Law and Politics. Here is the abstract.

The largely unwritten civic constitution is shaped by legislators, judges, bureaucrats, and others including ordinary citizens and social movement groups. I contend that it is also shaped by college and university presidents when they speak publicly about constitutional values such as free speech. Over the past decade, college and university presidents have issued statements about free speech and other controversial matters with increasing frequency. In this Article, I analyze how university presidents describe the concept of free speech to their campuses and thus engage in the work of constitutional development and find that university presidents describe free speech in two primary ways. What I identify as the “Traditionalist” approach hews closely to legal doctrine, including an institutional role focused on neutrality and often institutional silence. What I identify as the “New Democratic” approach focuses more on the lived experience of campus community members and requires a greater institutional role to ensure all have meaningful access to spaces of learning and knowledge creation. These varying approaches enact distinct understandings of free speech, align with different understandings of equality, and illustrate the consequences of employing one meaning of free speech over another.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.