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Speech Code of the Month: Barnard College
FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for April 2006: Barnard College.
This speech code deserves special recognition because it accomplishes the unique feat of violating itself. The provides that 鈥渢he following words cannot appear on any posted information at Barnard鈥攕hit, piss, suck, cunt, fuck, motherfucker, cocksucker and tits.鈥 So I guess that means that if you post the Posting Policy on campus, you have violated the Posting Policy. You can鈥檛 make this stuff up.
This list of words鈥攚ith the exception of 鈥渟uck,鈥 which I guess Barnard administrators just decided to throw in for good measure鈥攃omes from George Carlin鈥檚 monologue 鈥淪even Words You Can Never Say on Television.鈥 This monologue was made famous by the Supreme Court case FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978), in which the Supreme Court upheld the FCC鈥檚 power to regulate indecent broadcasts. The Court鈥檚 decision was based primarily on the unique status of broadcast speech, which 鈥渃onfronts the citizen, not only in public, but also in the privacy of the home,鈥 and which 鈥渋s uniquely accessible to children, even those too young to read.鈥 The Court explicitly emphasized the 鈥渘arrowness鈥 of its holding in Pacifica.
Outside of the broadcasting context, the Court has made clear that vulgar speech is entitled to a high degree of constitutional protection. In Cohen v. California (1971), the Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a man who wore a jacket bearing the words 鈥淔uck the Draft鈥 into a courthouse. The Court distinguished the situation from one in which the government acts 鈥渢o prohibit intrusion into the privacy of the home of unwelcome views and ideas,鈥 holding that 鈥渢he ability of government, consonant with the Constitution, to shut off discourse solely to protect others from hearing it is鈥ependent upon a showing that substantial privacy interests are being invaded in an essentially intolerable manner. Any broader view of this authority would effectively empower a majority to silence dissidents simply as a matter of personal predilections.鈥
Although Barnard is a private institution, it advertises itself as a place where students 鈥渁re encouraged to openly express their views and opinions.鈥 Therefore, students at Barnard should have the same free speech rights as their counterparts at New York鈥檚 public colleges and universities. However, First Amendment law provides absolutely no justification for an outright ban on the use of certain words, such as the one contained in Barnard鈥檚 Posting Policy.
Barnard claims to value students鈥 right to express their opinions. Sometimes, however, people express strong opinions in strong terms. For example, Eve Ensler鈥檚 play The Vagina Monologues includes a monologue entitled 鈥淩eclaiming Cunt.鈥 Should publicity for such an event really be shut off on a college campus, which is supposed to be a marketplace of ideas?
If Barnard is truly the center of higher learning that it claims to be, it shouldn鈥檛 be afraid of a few dirty words.
If you believe that your college or university should be a Speech Code of the Month, please email speechcodes@thefire.org with a link to the policy and a brief description of why you think attention should be drawn to this code.
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