We may not like it, but limiting ‘free speech’ is dangerous
EVER since arriving on these shores, I’ve always thought the American justice system was rotten to the core.
Not only does it inhumanly deal out death in judgement, and favour the rich and famous, but the courts, in many cases, cast aside judicial independence in favour of political appointments.
It is undeniable that any legal system should operate free of political interference.
So, it is jaw-dropping that a country that boasts of being the bastion of a fair and free democracy has managed to normalise the type of interference rarely seen outside of dictatorial regimes.
American politicians have always played games with the courts, although never so brazenly as Trump and his Republican cronies did during his short term in office.
During his four years in the White House, he appointed three controversial Supreme Court justices while packing the lower courts with judges supportive of his views.
Judge Kyle Duncan was one such man to benefit from the Trump presidency.
During his confirmation hearings, Senator Elizabeth Warren vehemently opposed his promotion to the fifth circuit.
She rightly highlighted Duncan’s lengthy record of supporting discrimination and injustice against women, people of colour, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community. She also expressed concern over his civil rights record and ability to dispense equal justice under the law, so much so that she urged her colleagues to reject his confirmation.
But Trump’s toadies, the Republican senate majority, voted him through.
Today Duncan is back in the news after last week being invited to speak at the prestigious Stanford Law School.
The university is well known as a production line for America’s future judges, political leaders and even presidents.
But despite Duncan’s outdated views, it did not justify the actions of those he stood before.
The law school’s Federalist
Society chapter invited the judge to discuss court opinions on “COVID, guns, and Twitter”.
But before even speaking, he was hijacked by not only a section of the students but, more alarmingly, the tutor.
As Duncan approached the podium, a barrage of abuse from the woke mob rang out.
Shouts such as “you’re not welcome here, we hate you”, “why do you hate black people”, “leave and never come back”, and “we do not respect you, this is our jurisdiction” were filled with expletives as the judge looked on in disbelief.
After ten minutes of persistent heckling from the students assembled, a Stanford Law School administrator came forward.
Tirien Steinbach, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion took the podium from Duncan and then pulled out prepared remarks in what clearly was a set-up.
She lambasted Duncan for six minutes, saying his presence made her and others uncomfortable.
Steinbach then, hypocritically, went into a lecture on the importance of free speech.
“Is the juice worth the squeeze?” she said.
While it may sound like hipster gibberish, such words could be the epitaph for free speech not only at Stanford University but far wider.
To invite a guest only to then close them down before even speaking, questions everything places of learning should be – listening to opinions from all sides before being allowed to make educated, informed decisions.
None of us should be foolish enough to believe that what is happening in the States is not creeping into universities in the UK.
This redefining of “free speech” to mean people only hear what they want to hear and every other opinion is wrong, is only a short step from authoritarianism.
TIGERS Woods has been accused in court of “tricking” his ex-girlfriend into leaving his Florida mansion and is now being sued for $30 million.
The golfer allegedly used the
guise of going on a “short vacation” to lock Erica Herman out amid a messy split, court documents allege.
The 38-year-old filed a landlord complaint in October last year, alleging Woods, 47, kicked her out from his sprawling Jupiter Island home in Florida despite having a verbal occupancy agreement.
In response, the golfer says Erica is simply a “jilted ex-girlfriend” and has asked a judge to dismiss her claim.
Given his terrible history with women, including cheating on his wife with more than a dozen mistresses, perhaps Woods should just stick to playing a round of golf rather than just playing around.