[932] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: What is the cost of academic and political freedom?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jeremy H. Brown)
Sun Oct 7 22:30:24 2001
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Message-ID: <uv6adz3p3er.fsf@suspiria.ai.mit.edu>
Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 17:05:00 -0400
Reply-To: "Documentation at http://web.mit.edu/beland/talk/talk.html"
<MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU>, "Jeremy H. Brown" <jhbrown@AI.MIT.EDU>
From: "Jeremy H. Brown" <jhbrown@AI.MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <200110072001.QAA10008@mindsun.mit.edu>
Paul D Elbourne <elbourne@mit.edu> writes:
> If, like the drafters of the First Amendment, you think that the right to
> freedom of speech is a good thing, you should be keen to defend that right
> even in cases where the level of censorship does not reach that experienced in
> Afghanistan or Cuba.
The right to free speech expressed in the first ammendment says that
Congress may not pass laws abridging freedom of speech; it says
*nothing* about the right of private institutions to hire or fire you
on the basis of things you say or do.
You might want to look at federal or state labor laws to see if *they*
apply to this situation, but don't try to bring the First Ammendment
into it, as it simply doesn't apply.
Jeremy
