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CSU Los Angeles Reverses Decision to Disinvite Ben Shapiro
California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) will let Ben Shapiro speak after all.
Yesterday, CSULA president William Covino announced he had unilaterally decided to cancel a speech by conservative author and political commentator Ben Shapiro, editor-at-large of the Breitbart News Network.
Shapiro, who was invited by CSULA鈥檚 student-run chapter of the Young America鈥檚 Foundation, was slated to give a speech entitled 鈥溾 this evening at 5:00 p.m. (EST). President Covino, however, abruptly cancelled the speech, calling for it to be rescheduled to an undetermined date when other speakers could also be present so that the speech would鈥攁s Covino put it鈥攂e 鈥渂alanced.鈥
Shapiro, in turn, anyway.
This afternoon, 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 Greg Lukianoff , encouraging Covino to back down:
. pres on PC colleges: "I honestly think it's the fault of administrators."
鈥 FOX Business (@FoxBusiness)
It seems CSULA has realized either that its disinvitation was under the First Amendment, or that it could not prevent Shapiro from speaking without physically dragging him away.
A statement from the Young America鈥檚 Foundation provided to FIREnoted that 鈥渢his is not an occasion for celebration. Shapiro鈥檚 ability to speak on campus never should have been in question.鈥
FIRE agrees. CSULA鈥檚 reversal is a welcome development, but the public university鈥檚 misguided decision should never have been made in the first place.
Fortunately, Shapiro鈥檚 announcement that he would attend anyway has permitted students to continue organizing鈥攂oth to welcome Shapiro, and to protest his messages. That鈥檚 the proper remedy to controversial speech at work: more speech.
Shapiro鈥檚 speech will be .
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