First Amendment scholar, author and former American Civil Liberties Union president Nadine Strossen visited MTSU on Sept. 23 for a candid conversation about First Amendment rights.
Strossen spoke to a crowd of about 50 engaged students in the Keathley University Center Theater about topics ranging from career burnout to the intentional spreading of false information. Frank Lambert, an associate professor in MTSU’s College of Education and the director of the school’s graduate library science program, joined Strossen on stage for an hour of questions — a few from Lambert, but most from the curious audience.
When Lambert asked whether anyone in the U.S. does not have free-speech protection according to the Bill of Rights, Strossen was delighted.
“I rarely get a question that I have never had,” Strossen said. “And I have never had that before. So thank you for that very original question, Professor Lambert.”
She said even with a conservative interpretation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, “The answer is no.”
“The First Amendment literally says Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech,” Strossen said. “It doesn’t say unless you are below a certain age, unless you have a certain belief, unless you say something offensive to somebody else.”
She explained that while some constitutional rights are age-restricted, free speech is for all.
After completing his series of questions, Lambert traversed the theater with a microphone giving students and other attendees a chance to ask their own.
“What are your thoughts on how colleges should approach free speech even when a controversial speaker is involved?” student Destinee Hughes asked.
Hughes didn’t name any names, but less than a week after former Vice President Mike Pence spoke at MTSU, it wasn’t hard to guess.
“Once the speaker gets there,” Strossen said, “You have the right, and certainly the ACLU and yours truly strongly defend the right of protest. Every positive social change that has occurred in this country has occurred as a result of protests.”
“What kind of caught my attention from the event,” Hughes said afterward, “Was just exercising our right to free speech and not letting anyone deter our free speech in this world. Because there are a lot of things that can deter us from that and just kind of silence us from it. She integrated that into free speech and said that you can say what you need to say, just say it respectfully.”
Despite the gravity of the topic at hand, Strossen remained upbeat and optimistic about the near future. When a student asked about the future of free speech in the U.S. over the next decade, Strossen laughed.
“Wow, you’re only asking me one decade into the future? What I project into the next semester is tough enough,” Strossen said. She went on to say that optimism is a requirement for activism. Strossen tied her answer to a previous question about what keeps her going.
“I never, ever take for granted the enormous amount of free speech we do have,” Strossen said. “It’s so much greater than it was when I was your age.”
We are still in the midst of challenges, but moving in the right direction, she said.
“The trajectory has been to more and more freedom of speech for more and more people, including people who previously did not have such robust free-speech rights, including college students.”
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