We previously discussed the free speech lawsuit of Portland State University Professor Bruce Gilley who was blocked from the Twitter account of the University of Oregon’s Division of Equity and Inclusion after tweeting “All men are created equal.” The court just granted a preliminary injunction holding that there was a substantial likelihood that he would prevail on the merits against the University of Oregon.
Portland State University Professor Bruce Gilley was excluded from a Diversity Twitter page by the Communication Manager of the Division of Equity and Inclusion at the University of Oregon. (The manager is identified as “tova stabin” who the court notes “spells her name with all lowercase letters.”). Stabin has now left the school.
In Gilley v. Stabin, Judge Hernández previously offered this background:
On or about June 14, 2022, Defendant stabin, in her capacity as Communication Manager, posted a “racism interruptor” to the Division’s Twitter page, @UOEquity. The Tweet read “You can interrupt racism,” and the prompt read, “It sounded like you just said_________. Is that really what you meant?”
Plaintiff Bruce Gilley, a professor at Portland State University, responded to the Tweet the same day it was posted with the entry “all men are created equal.” Plaintiff is critical of diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) principles, and intended his tweet to promote a colorblindness viewpoint. Plaintiff tagged @uoregon and @UOEquity in his re-tweet. Also on June 14, 2022, Defendant stabin blocked Plaintiff from the @UOEquity account. Once he was blocked, Plaintiff could no longer view, reply to, or retweet any of @UOEquity’s posts….
Plaintiff later filed a public records request with the University of Oregon to inquire about the policy VPEI uses to block Twitter users. … The University initially responded that there was no written policy and that “the staff member that administers the VPEI Twitter account and social media has the autonomy to manage the accounts and uses professional judgment when deciding to block users.” …Plaintiff also asked whether other Twitter users had been blocked from @UOEquity, and the University responded that two other users were blocked. … Plaintiff asserts that “[b]oth of the other users have expressed politically conservative viewpoints, including criticizing posts of the @UOEquity account.” Am. Compl. ¶ 70.
On June 27, 2022, Defendant stabin responded to an email from University of Oregon employee Kelly Pembleton, who was helping respond to Plaintiff’s public records request. Defendant stabin sent the following in response to Pembleton’s request for a list of the users she had blocked on @UOEquity:
“Doesn’t take real long. I’ve only ever blocked three people. Here is the list. I’m assuming the issue is this guy Bruce Gilley. He was not just being obnoxious, but bringing obnoxious people to the site some. We don’t have much following and it’s the social I pay least attention to. Here’s a screenshot of everyone I’ve ever blocked. I hardly do it (and barely know how to).”
Minutes later, Defendant stabin sent another email to Pembleton about the records request. The email reads, in pertinent part:
“Oh, I see. It is Bruce who brought it. Not surprising. He was commenting on one of the “interrupt racism” posts, as I recall talking something about the oppression of white men, if I recall. Really, they are just there to trip you up and make trouble. Ugh. I’m around at home for a quick zoom about it.’
The court previously denied the university’s motion to dismiss. The University of Oregon then continued to spend public dollars to try to defend its right to censor academics and students in this arbitrary way. Now it has lost the key fight over the preliminary injunction.
In his decision, Judge Hernández zeroed in on the guidelines allowing for the censorship of offensive or hateful speech:
“Plaintiff has shown that the two provisions of the social media guidelines he challenges create a risk of censoring speech that is protected by the First Amendment. As Plaintiff points out, speech that is “hateful,” “racist,” or “otherwise offensive” is protected by the Constitution. Pl. Br. 3 (citing Snyder v. Phelps, 562 U.S. 443, 454 (2011); Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15, 25 (1971); Am. Freedom Def. Initiative v. King County, 904 F.3d 1126, 1131 (9th Cir. 2018)). The Court held that the @UOEquity account was a limited public forum, meaning that any restrictions on speech must be reasonable and viewpoint-neutral. Op. & Ord. 25.5 Plaintiff is correct that the provisions allowing the Communications Manager to block “hateful,” “racist,” and “otherwise offensive” speech create a risk of viewpoint discrimination because “[w]hat is offensive or hateful is often in the eye of the beholder.” Pl. Br. 4. If Plaintiff was blocked for posting “all men are created equal” because the post was viewed as hateful, racist, or otherwise offensive, such blocking would violate the Constitution. Deleting or hiding the post for that reason would also violate the Constitution.”
That is why this decision could have a lasting impact for higher education. The Oregon language is not dissimilar from many schools limiting campus speech under vague guidelines.
Notably, we have discussed how these schools have been losing in federal courts in their effort to maintain censorship systems. Yet, administrators continue undeterred in pursuing these policies with the support of their faculty.
Oregon has long been known for radical viewpoints in academia. I previously criticized the school policy to monitor student speech on social media and off campus as part of its speech regulations.
The school previously gave special recognition to University of California (Santa Barbara) Professor Mireille Miller-Young who criminally assaulted pro-life advocates on the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara. At Oregon, she was honored as a featured speaker at the University of Oregon’s Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Part of its “black feminist speaker series,” Miller-Young’s work was highlighted by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of English to show “the radical potential of black feminism in the work that we do on campus and in our everyday lives.”
It is unlikely that the legislature will object to this expensive fight to preserve the right to censor speech. The state itself has moved aggressively against free speech rights of doctors and others in areas like abortion. However, the people of Oregon should consider the use of their tax dollars to seek to limit the “indispensable right” of free speech and to give figures like stabin such discretion over what speech to allow on campus.
The quote, “All men are created equal”, from the Declaration of Independence, is now considered racist, hateful, or otherwise offensive?
University of Oregon’s decision to hire a manager for their social media account who does not understand how to capitalize proper nouns is an ironic reflection on the quality of education offered.
It’s all so very clever. Just because your feelings are hurt doesn’t mean censorship is due. The clever by half have that figured in by launching protests and disrupting the process of business at the college for Gilley’s words.
Gilley will win it.
Dear Mr. Turley, as a mother of 3 Iraqi War veterans, I have to give another shout-out to GEB. My oldest son was in on the invasion in 2003. My youngest son was there in 2005-06 and My daughter served with the National Guard from our state from 2008-09. I will print off his response and keep it to read over and over again. Thanks, Mr. Turley, for your great articles and a special thanks to GEB!! I always seek out your comments!!
Albert Einstein built the Special and General theory of physics on thought experiments. Evolution tells us that his brain points to much bigger brains for our descendants. What happens when our brains, already running on electricity develope something like WIFI and communicate directly without external media means? We call it ESP. How fairs content moderation, including utilitarian doctrine then?
I add that Elon Musk is pushing that envelope with Neuralink.
That future is pretty far off. First we’ll have to evolve a brain that knows how to spell “develop.”
Or “fares”.
Thank you for pointing out our thoughts and memories are electrical but how are the pathways stored for retrieval? —> JC prayer, lead me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake.
The singular American failure is the judicial branch, with emphasis on the Supreme Court.
The communist American welfare state must have been struck down at each and every progressive step.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
– Preamble to the Declaration of Independence
____________________________________________________
All men are created equal. After creation, all men are on their own. All men are, and must be, free and self-reliant. All men must create their own success. All men must suffer their own failures. Success or failure, acceptance or rejection are not guaranteed or even addressed by the Constitution. All men must not covet, bear false witness regarding, or steal other people’s money (OPM). Welfare, affirmative action, quotas, public housing, social services, unfair “Fair Housing” (i.e. private property) laws, discriminatory “Non-Discrimination” laws, Obamacare, WIC, SNAP, TANF, and the remainder of the “entitlements” and “benefits” of the redistributive (i.e. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”), socially engineered communist American welfare state are unconstitutional, per Article 1, Section 8.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are partial, biased, and wholly unconstitutional.
Equity is the absence of bias or favoritism in jurisprudence; equity is impartiality in law.
Free people will always retain choice in all personal matters, such as their lives, their liberty, and their pursuit of happiness.
The entire communist American welfare state is unconstitutional, including, but not limited to, admissions affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency, Agriculture, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc.
Article 1, Section 8, provides Congress the power to tax for ONLY debt, defense, and “…general (all, the whole) Welfare…,” omitting and, thereby, excluding any power to tax for individual Welfare, specific Welfare, particular Welfare, favor, or charity. The same article enumerates and provides Congress the power to regulate ONLY the Value of money, Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian Tribes, and land and naval Forces. Additionally, the 5th Amendment right to private property was initially qualified by the Framers and is, therefore, absolute, allowing no further qualification and allowing ONLY the owner the power to “claim and exercise” dominion over private property.
Government exists under the Constitution and Bill of Rights to provide maximal freedom to individuals, while government is severely limited and restricted to merely facilitating that maximal freedom of individuals through the provision of security and infrastructure only.
you seem to misunderstand the meaning of ‘created equal’ in the preamble. The phrase means that God the Creator bestows equality of dignity – not inherent talents. skills, or abilies. This equality of dignity implies the equality of enumerated rights that ‘thebill of rights’ both contains and are enshrined within our American constitution. America was blessed by God that the founding fathers were smart, well and truly educated, able to reason and think both critically and logically, and wise enough to found our nation on such a principled and ingenious doctrine. Amen.
The assimilation has to be forced.
What happens after they’re created?
The illegal alien foreign invader parasites get the “free stuff,” “free status,” and “free country” from American taxpayers.
Have you forgotten to address charity?
Perhaps a shorter way of saying the same thing “…everybody has different capacities. If we are equal we are not free, if we are free we are not equal.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, I won’t attest to the accuracy of this quote, but it is close enough to get the idea across.
Jonathan: In your defense of Prof. Gilley and his racist views you have neglected another threat to “free speech”–this time on Elon Musk’s “X”. What’s that about?
Musk has endorsed DJT and says he will donate $45 million a month to the DJT campaign. Now Rep. Jerry Nadler has asked Jim Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Musk has improperly prevented “X” users from following the official presidential campaign account for Kamala Harris. In a letter Monday to Jordan, Nadler said “numerous users” on “X” were blocked from the “@Kamala HQ” account. In a email Nadler said: “If House Republicans have even a shred of credibility left they will call out this blatant attempt to limit the Vice President’s voice and investigate immediately…If true, such action would amount to egregious censorship based on political and viewpoint discrimination”. NBC reports (7/24/24) that at least 13 “X” user accounts were unable to follow “Kamala HQ”.
You are quick to defend the “free speech” rights of conservatives and outright racists on social media platforms. So when are you going to defend the right of “X” users to follow Kamala Harris?
Denis and Jerry Nadler apparently don’t understand that “egregious censorship based on political and viewpoint discrimination” is quite allowed by private owners like Elon Musk, even if it is true.
“[Private property is] that dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in exclusion of every other individual.”
– James Madison
LOL! DEI is RACIST; period. It institutionalizes racism into schools, places of business, government, military, etc. where it wasn’t prominent; it will be once DEI gets hold. It really stands for ‘division, exclusion and inequality’. When one race is pitted against another as DEI is about; especially in ‘blaming white people’ for others status in society, in order to victimize and patronize minorities it creates problems where none or few existed. Prof. Gilley rightly stated and w/o any racial or sexist points of view but rather that we are made in the image of God as equals. If that’s bothersome to you, it’s something you’ll need to work out with your maker as in God; he knows the truth because God is truth.
Dennis: False: Please go back and reread what Musk said about his contribution(s) to America PAC. thanks
Dennis McIntyre, systemically racist Soviet Democrat, here to declare that somebody saying “All men are created equal.” is RACIST! Dennis McIntyre is the embodiment of Soviet Democrat theology: if you disagree or stand in the way of Soviet Democrats and Dennis – you are a RACIST. And probably a Nazi as well… despite the Soviet Democrats being the home of the New Hitler Youth Movement in America.
Dennis McIntyre on the other hand says that the racist blacks running the Soviet Democrats’ street thugs in Black Liars & Marxists, who claim that anyone born with white skin is inferior and a racist, are straight from the heart of Martin Luther King.
Dennis McIntyre says the communist black racists that culturally appropriated lily white communist Herbert Marcuse’s Marxist Critical Theory to turn it into Critical Race theory where whites are born to live their lives as racists and blacks are born to be oppressed are neither culturally appropriating thieves nor racists.
Dennis McIntyre says that Obama’s best friend Louis Farrakhan – America’s most successful racist of any color – is not a racist despite preaching that white and Jewish babies should be killed.
Dennis McIntyre says the Soviet Democrats Anti-Semitic Hajji Socialist Sisterhood aren’t racists, while one tells Americans “Jews are about the Benjamins, baby” and another says that thinking of the Holocaust gives her a warm feeling.
Racists are pretty bad. What’s worse are sub-human communist Soviet Democrats like Dennis McIntyre who accuse people of racism in pursuit of his dreams of communist totalitarianism where he might be named the party’s official theologian.
Jonathan, your very good and special friend Dennis McIntyre posted this to you personally this afternoon:
Jonathan: In a letter Monday to Jordan, Nadler said “numerous users” on “X” were blocked from the “@Kamala HQ” account.
Is that the same Kamala Harris who told Biden to his face in front of America that she knew him to be both a rapist and a virulent racist? The Kamela Harris that then went back down on her knees again in front of a man who offered her a higher public office than what she held?
Is that the Nadler that’s the tub of lard that crapped his pants in public and waddled off the stage while pieces of feces dropped from the bottom of his pantlegs? The same Jerry Nadler who lied to Marxist Useful Idiots like Dennis McIntyre for YEARS, that he and Adam Schiff had confirmed that the Soviet Democrats’ “Trump Russia Dossier” was all confirmed intelligence agency evidence Trump was Putin’s bought and paid for stooge?
BREAKING NEWS DENNIS! BREAKING NEWS!
Six Democrats Break With Party To Vote with Republican majority condemning Border Czar Kamala Harris For Her Abject Failure To Stop Millions Of Illegal Aliens Crossing Into America!
https://nypost.com/2024/07/25/us-news/house-passes-bipartisan-resolution-strongly-condemning-border-czar-kamala-harris/