Free speech jackassery

Florida state representative Dennis Baxley has decided that apparently the notion of freedom of expression does not apply to Florida public universities. Baxley is miffed that the editorial cartoonist at the University of Florida drew an unflattering picture of him in a cartoon. Complaining that "liberal elite" on Florida university campuses are trying to humiliate him for holding conservative views, Baxley appeared before a meeting of the presidents of all of Florida's public universities to ask them to "protect conservatives" on Florida's ultra-liberal campuses.

I think we all remember how Florida universities in particular are havens of communist and Maoist sympathizers, bastions of anti-war and anti-Bush sentiment, and how very anti-conservative they are. They make UC Berkeley look like the Vatican.

Baxley, of course, is no mere mealymouth here. He sits on the state house's committee on higher education, and thus has great sway on funding for these institutions. When he moans and complains, the university presidents have no choice but to listen.

I find it interesting that a conservative who rails against the idea of special priviledges for any group (gays, blacks, Jews, people who don't like cats, evangelicals) is now standing here saying that his own special group needs to be protected from discrimination.

Mr. Baxley, of course, is a notable public figure. Florida's public universities are, well, public. In cases like Tinker v. Des Moines, New York Times v. Sullivan, and Gertz v. Robert Welch Inc., the Supreme Court has noted that freedom of speech does, in fact, extend into public educational institutions; and that for a public figure to complain about being libelled, he must prove "actual malice," meaning that the item published must have been known to be false by the publisher at time of publishing; and that statements of opinion (the UF newspaper's opinion page would, presumably, contain opinions) are not libel. Thus Mr. Baxley has absolutely no valid standing for his complaint.

But for the fact that he holds the purse strings, the university presidents would have laughed him out of their meeting. Instead they've all decided to go home and really look hard at their anti-discrimination policies. These are the same policies conservatives rail against when used for admissions decisions; but now that conservatives constitute a special group needing special privilege, well, now those policies need to be more strongly enforced.

Never underestimate the pettiness of a politician.