[621] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: Dartmouth and Zeta Psi
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Matt Craighead)
Sat May 12 17:05:21 2001
Message-ID: <3AFDA673.F7657253@mit.edu>
Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 17:09:07 -0400
From: Matt Craighead <craighea@MIT.EDU>
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To: "Prez H. Cannady" <revprez@MIT.EDU>
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"Prez H. Cannady" wrote:
>
> At 03:37 PM 5/12/01 , Sourav K. Mandal wrote
> >
> >What does the US Constitution have to do with a private university?
>
> That's an interesting frame, but irrelevent. The question is
> what does the US Constitution have to do with a private
> university that claims tolerance and adherence to human rights?
> If a liberal university rejects the US Constitution -- something
> not unexpected by morally deplorable on their part -- then
> how can they honestly claim to protect free discussion.
Well, read the First Amendment. Note the phrasing. "Congress shall
make no law..." This says absolutely _nothing_ about what private
organizations may or may not do.
There _are_ parts of the Constitution that do impact private
organizations, but the First Amendment itself affects *only* Congress.
(Does the First apply to states? This is not nearly so clear-cut, but I
would argue that the 14th Amendment extends the 1st to also apply to
state legislatures.)
So, for example, if MIT forced all students, as a condition of coming to
MIT, to agree to a speech code, no matter how ridiculous the speech code
was, that would still be constitutionally acceptable.
On the other hand, FCC regulation of content on the airwaves is
blatantly unconstitutional.
Some leftist judges may disagree with my desire to actually take the
Constitution _literally_, rather than arbitrarily changing its meaning
based on their latest whim or based on whether the entrails of this
week's sacrificial goat coiled clockwise or counterclockwise, but that
doesn't make their silly interpretations any more right. :)
--
Matt Craighead, MIT Class of 2002
President, MIT Objectivist Club
http://web.mit.edu/objectivism/www/
