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U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner: College kids not ‘developed’ enough for free speech
Campus Reform ^ | August 5, 2014 | Kaitlyn Schallhorn

Posted on 08/05/2014 8:08:34 PM PDT by bamahead

The U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner claims campus speech codes need to be tightened as college students are still “developing” and cannot yet handle certain information.

Speaking during a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) briefing on sexual harassment law in education, Democrat Michael Yaki likened restricting free speech on college campuses to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 decision to ban the death penalty for minors.

During the briefing, Yaki said hostile environments on college campuses can occur from fraternities holding “slave auction[s]” or celebrating Latino culture by “making everyone dress as janitors and mop floors.”

“Certain factors in how the juvenile or adolescent or young adult brain processes information is vastly different from the way that we adults do,” Yaki said according to a transcript from Eugene Volokh, a law professor and publisher of the blog, The Volokh Conspiracy, who also testified at the briefing. “So when we sit back and talk about what is right or wrong in terms of First Amendment jurisprudence from a reasonable person’s standpoint, we are really not looking into the same referential viewpoint of these people, of an adolescent or young adult, including those in universities.”

Yaki made these claims while questioning Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a nonprofit organization advocating for civil liberties in higher education nationwide.

A spokesperson from FIRE declined to comment to Campus Reform as the USCCR has requested the organization wait to make any media comment until after the official transcript from the briefing is released.

“In the meantime, I would point you to the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which extended the franchise to 18-year-olds. FIRE has long argued that if college students can vote and can even be sent off to fight in wars, we must grant them full political rights—and that prominently includes their First Amendment rights,” Robert Shibley, senior vice president at FIRE, did tell Campus Reform.

During the briefing, Yaki said hostile environments on college campuses can occur from fraternities holding “slave auction[s]” or celebrating Latino culture by “making everyone dress as janitors and mop floors.” Yaki also decried campus pageants and other activities in which women “parade around in skimpy clothing and turn in some show or something.”

“[B]ecause of the unique nature of a university campus setting, I think that there are very good and compelling reasons why broader policies and prohibitions on conduct in activities and in some instances speech are acceptable on a college campus level that might not be acceptably say in an adult work environment or in an adult situation,” he said.

Yaki told Campus Reform in an email that he uses briefings as “opportunities to pose questions that help me understand the challenges of the issue” as it “helps clarify—or solidify—or highlight—the difficulty of grappling with a particular issue.”

Yaki also told Campus Reform that he has considered himself a “First Amendment absolutist” for much of his life.

“If there is a way to strike a balance between First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, it will have to [be] done with great restraint and narrowly tailored to pass constitutional muster,” he said. “Frankly, I haven't seen one, and imposing a prior restraint policy w [sic] punishment plainly violates the First Amendment.”

“[H]ow do we work to increase the safety and security, both mental and physical, of all our students in a way that doesn't require infringing on the First Amendment,” Yaki said. “That is the million dollar question that, to me, the briefing was intended, and which more thought and work needs to be done.”

Prior to working as the Civil Rights Commissioner, Yaki was a senior advisor to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and also served on San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors where he was subsequently sued by the city for around 70 instances of illegal lobbying.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1stamendment; freespeech; speechcodes
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To: bamahead

If the guy is saying there are too many dumbasses and long-haired geeks in college he’s probably correct. In my school years a half century ago most of my friends were VETS and there’s no way we put up with unnecessary cheap krap. We had all done a lot of living by the time we got there and didn’t have any trouble spitting out an opinion or spotting a problem. The current campus crowd would have been target of ATOMIC wedgies and all the rest that goes with being an ill-mannered dunce.


61 posted on 08/06/2014 10:33:33 AM PDT by cherokee1 (skip the names---just kick the buttz)
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To: Albion Wilde

> You meant “ostensible”?

Yes, I did.


62 posted on 08/06/2014 10:48:52 AM PDT by Westbrook (Children do not divide your love, they multiply it.)
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To: Raycpa

> An argument for returning voting age to 21.

Should never have been changed, but it’s an amendment, now. Very hard to change.


63 posted on 08/06/2014 10:49:58 AM PDT by Westbrook (Children do not divide your love, they multiply it.)
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To: bamahead

Wow....another leftist stupid enough to tell everyone what they actually believe.

He won’t be criticized by his peers for what he actually said...only that he said it in public.


64 posted on 08/06/2014 11:22:22 AM PDT by rottndog ('Live Free Or Die' Ain't just words on a bumber sticker...or a tagline.)
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To: gaijin

“The Baby-boomers are funny:

As yutes...”

...we joined the Marines and served in Viet Nam.

Honorably.

As adults, we are conservative and vote Republican and support the Tea Party.

Now let’s talk about all the Communists in “The Greatest Generation” who subverted America during the FDR Administration.

Or we could simply not paint with a broad brush.

Just sayin’.


65 posted on 08/06/2014 11:53:30 AM PDT by ChicagahAl (Don't blame me. I voted for Sarah.)
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To: ChicagahAl

SSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHUUUUUSSSSSHHHHH!!!!!

There are many young brains not fully developed enough to handle that kind of information....they must be protected....for their own good!


66 posted on 08/06/2014 12:14:37 PM PDT by rottndog ('Live Free Or Die' Ain't just words on a bumber sticker...or a tagline.)
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To: kaehurowing

But Barry is not Congress; further *proof* the Founding Fathers would’ve been copacetic with an EO, right? /sarc

HF


67 posted on 08/06/2014 1:47:53 PM PDT by holden
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To: rottndog
they must be protected

Perversely, I believe you're correct.
1) The US Civil Rights Commissioner probably made this statement to ingratiate himself to a higher position in Barry's administration.

2) The administration wants to advantage youth. Where old farts such as I will be summarily shot for expressing my Constitutionally-aligned and -guaranteed understandings, killing off the yet-useful youth (stronger, youthful, healthy) at a later date will save on lead bullets and prioritize whom must be shot in an order that serves Barry's goals.

3) By advantaging youth, whose parents are still contributing massive sums to the University system, both those "natural Democrat" constituencies (youths and uni-types) are advantaged during their university attendance, as their parents continue to fork it over.

Etc.

HF

68 posted on 08/06/2014 2:19:16 PM PDT by holden
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To: bamahead

She looks developed enough for me. So as far as I am concerned, she can say whatever the hell she wants.

69 posted on 08/06/2014 3:17:11 PM PDT by lowbridge
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To: bamahead
Yaki just confirms what an educator in the past has said what our colleges have become: Ivy-covered North Koreas.

Yaki-ty-yak doens't mention students seem to be mature enough to ban speakers that don't fit their agenda, or the fringe groups and clubs on campus spewing garbage, or banning christian/right-leaning political groups initiated by students.

Rush today pointed another 'maturity' contradiction: how is it a 12 year-old girl can have an abortion and the parents don't need to be notified?

I have one. Why do schools feel younger students are mature enough to introduce them to the gay agenda and condoms?

70 posted on 08/06/2014 3:50:23 PM PDT by QT3.14 (USA born 7.4.1776 fathered by geniuses, died 11.4.2008 (Suicide) by idiots and traitors)
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To: bamahead

The US Civil Rights Commission has always, in recent times, had communists/marxists and leftwing wackos on it. Check out the pro-Maoist musings of Merry Berry (who is still around and spouting her marxism. Saw something about her in the paper the other day)

Yaki is Wacky, but then again, he worked for Nancy Pelosi where wackiness is a key prerequiste to employment, as well as the The San Francisco Politburo (er, City Council).

Thanks to Al Gore’s internet, these marxist idiots can now be exposed in “real time” and their fascistic/marxist quotes and plans used against them.

Wonder if he was named after the Russian airplane designer (Yakolev, aka YAK, for short)?

I know that the Yaki (aka Yaqui) Indians wouldn’t want this creep in their tribe.


71 posted on 08/06/2014 4:24:20 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: bamahead

The First Amendment’s “exception list” seems to be growing all the time. We have Justice Breyer’s Koran-burning exception, we have the left’s “corporation” exception, we have this guy’s “developmental” exception.


72 posted on 08/06/2014 4:56:14 PM PDT by denydenydeny ("World History is not full of good governments, or of good voters either "--P.J. O'Rourke)
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To: bamahead

The college kids of the late 60s would have burnt down DC for this kinda crap, but King Zero is in the Whitehouse so it’s no big deal.


73 posted on 08/07/2014 6:13:39 PM PDT by Rockitz (This is NOT rocket science - Follow the money and you'll find the truth.)
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To: bamahead

My son just went to a middle school leadership conference in DC. He was given a choice between disaster relief or going green as his project.

These statists can’t get us, they can only try to indoctrinate our kids.

My son showed them and his roommates the Manbearpig South Park episode.


74 posted on 08/08/2014 6:05:27 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084 (I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer to drink a bunch of them. Stay thirsty my FRiends)
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To: Biggirl

Hopefully many like him will not survive.


75 posted on 08/09/2014 7:45:33 AM PDT by jospehm20
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To: bamahead

Yaki needs to be disbarred.


76 posted on 08/09/2014 10:30:28 PM PDT by Fedora
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