Berkeley has long been viewed as one of the most viewpoint-intolerant universities in the United States. Conservatives and those with opposing views are rarely invited and often face protests or cancellations. Some of us have long accused the Berkeley administrators and faculty of fostering this culture of intolerance. That culture was again on full display in the cancellation of an event with Jeffrey Dean, Chief Scientist at Google, in Jarvis Auditorium on Friday, May 1. The passive position taken by the campus police speaks volumes about why Berkeley is an academic echo chamber. The university reportedly maintained that it will take no action in preventing such disruptions absent violence. In adopting this position, the university effectively enables a heckler’s veto. The inexplicable position would leave the level of permitted speech to the mob at Berkeley.
This event generated overwhelming interest on campus, given the many programs focused on machine learning and AI. It could not have been more timely, and Dean could not be a better figure to facilitate substantive and civil discourse. It was organized by the Berkeley Forum, which is dedicated to intellectual exchange and free speech.
However, roughly twenty masked protesters entered the event with the intention of preventing others from hearing from Dean and discussing these issues. Soon after the event began, they reportedly disrupted it with megaphones and yelling. According to the Forum’s letter to university officials, “representatives from The Berkeley Forum, the College of Engineering, and Jelani Nelson, Chair of EECS, informed the protesters that they were not authorized to attend and asked them to leave. They refused.”
At that point, it should be a straightforward matter for campus security. In its student conduct directives, Berkeley repeatedly cites the First Amendment as binding and requires the university to allow opposing views. It is hardly an overwhelming statement of free speech values, but the university does state that “once a speaker has been invited by a student group, the campus is obligated and committed to acting reasonably to ensure that the speaker is able to safely and effectively address his or her audience, free from violence or disruption.”
Nevertheless, protesters have repeatedly succeeded in canceling events, and it is rare for any conservative or libertarian speaker to be invited on campus for such events. On this occasion, the Berkeley Forum spoke with Berkeley campus police to remove fewer than two dozen protesters. Here is what they said they were told:
“Prior to their entry, a Berkeley Forum member had informed UCPD escorts on scene that this was a ticketed event and that the protesters were not registered attendees. UCPD and campus security responded that, due to “free speech,” there was nothing that could be done to prevent the protesters from entering the private event. When we asked officers to intervene and restore order, we were told they would not act unless the protest turned violent.
They made no request that protesters stop or leave, and no attempt to identify them. After over 10 minutes of back-and-forth, during which the audience vocally expressed its support for Dr. Dean’s talk to continue, we were forced to cancel the event due to safety concerns.”
The university’s reported position is legally untenable. The university clearly has the authority to remove disruptive individuals at events. These protesters were not exercising free speech. They were preventing the exercise of free speech. They are entirely protected in conducting protests outside of the events. What they cannot do is disrupt or cancel an event.
On a practical basis, it is equally absurd. They were unticketed trespassers with bullhorns. It effectively enables a heckler’s veto, telling protesters that, so long as they do not resort to violence against speakers or other students, they will not be removed. That leaves organizers subject to the will of the mob. The message from Berkeley is BYOB, Bring Your Own Bullhorn.
The situation is reminiscent of the recent disruption at UCLA law school, where students drowned out a speaker with profanity and cellphone ringers. The school took no action against the readily identifiable law students while threatening others not to reveal their names. (The school later rescinded that threat, but has not taken any action against the administrator who made the threat).
In “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I write about this passive-aggressive position of universities in shrugging off disruptive and obstructive conduct. Berkeley is fully aware that remaining passive, absent violent conduct, will fuel such disruptive protests.
The passivity of the Berkeley police is nothing new for conservatives, pro-life, and other advocates. From the University of North Carolina to UC Davis, police often stand by as mere onlookers, even in the face of property damage.
The university’s position here is clearly antithetical to the intellectual values that should govern such events. It is also legally incomprehensible, in my view. What is missing is not the authority to act, but the will to do so. The faculty and administrators of Berkeley have a choice to make: take a stand for intellectual diversity or yield, again, to orthodoxy and intolerance.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
“Berkeley Refuses to Act as Pro-Palestinian Protesters Disrupt Campus Event”
Correction:
“Direct and Mortal Enemy Communists at Berkeley Engage in Acts of Treason Against the United States by Adhering to Their Enemies, Iran et al., Giving Them Aid and Comfort.”
DOJ To Investigate.
Treason, subversion of, and insurrection against the U.S. government are capital crimes.
“Because of free speech, we cannot prevent people from suppressing free speech.”
Leftist logic in a nutshell. Make that, leftist lunacy in a nutshell. Leftists are mentally-deranged monsters.
Yep, in a nutshell, omfk. It’s equally crazy attempting to reason with them. Imo
They function by instincts, emotion and impulse.
OldManFromKS,
Well said.
And the lack of action from the university only spawns more of these mentally-deranged monsters.
NOW I get it!
“Because the First Amendment protects freedom of speech, the government generally cannot ban people from expressing anti–free-speech views.”
Perhaps, but there’s a difference between expressing anti-free-speech views, and preventing other people from speaking. The disruptors at Berkeley prevented the people they disliked from speaking, which is *not* an exercise of free speech, just the opposite.
Google AI Overview
Debate rules establish a structured, respectful, and fair environment, focusing on arguments, evidence, and timing. Key rules typically include: Adhering to strict time limits for speeches and rebuttals, prohibiting new constructive arguments in rebuttal, treating opponents with respect, and providing evidence to support assertions.
People shall not assemble violently.
________________________________________
1st Amendment
“Congress shall make no law … abridging the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”
Not in courtrooms where lawyers bribe judges and they share the spoils.
You are free to express anti-free speech views
You are not free to engage in disorderly conduct
It was a ticketed event and these people did not have tickets, but the campus police said they could not prevent them entering without a ticket because of “free speech”. I’ll bet their approach is radically different when someone tries to get into one of their Cal football games without a ticket.
“I’ll bet their approach is radically different when someone tries to get into one of their Cal football games without a ticket.”
That “someone” might have a better chance of gaining admission if they dressed like this:
Robert Downey Jr. as Derek Lutz at football game:
https://rdjfilmguide.neocities.org/images/rdj_back03.jpg
The University should be sued for violation of civil rights.
People shall not assemble violently.
________________________________________
1st Amendment
“Congress shall make no law … abridging the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”
Professor Turley should attend a UC Berkeley commencement or departmental “studies” graduation—I recently attended 7 and will attend more—if he wants to experience antisemitism at Cal.
I imagine Professor Emeritus Robert Reich will hear pro-Palestinian/anti-Jew chants during his speech this year. I disagree with progressives like Reich, but never imagined interrupting his lectures as a student over twenty years ago.
Sigh. Another day, another instance of greedy adults capitulating to spoiled children. I hope at some point we realize collectively that this is not a side-show, it’s pervasive and a glimpse of our future. I no longer know what to say, and I hate being so cynical, even in regard to the trolls here. Heaven help us.
James, it is disheartening to hear of this kind of evil being normalized at institutions that are supposed to be centers of learning. Learning that evil conduct has no adverse consequences is not helpful to anyone, including those who are then incentivized to commit further evil acts, or of course their victims. Berkeley’s administration should hang their heads in shame, same as Stanford when US Judge Duncan was invited to speak there, but his speech had to be canceled for similar reasons, and the dean actually supported the disruptors.
@oldman
You are so right.
James and NotSoOld: “…evil conduct has no adverse consequences is not helpful to anyone”
Yup, it;s like the hand-over-hand climb up a baseball bat-only here, they climb down.
Are you guys old enough to remember Bob Dylan’s “Well, they’ll stone ya when you’re trying to be so good
They’ll stone ya just a-like they said they would But I would not feel so all alone, Everybody must get stoned.”
(Actually, I only know the song because a friend of mine used to play it on his guitar with his band, but I ain’t no spring chicken either!)
gotta get going here–
Lin
Yes. I do remember that song. (-:
Now I feel old.
Dustoff: You sound much younger in your comments here! And I do remember you mentioned your military service in airplanes? In any event, my friend used to play music at our nighttime beach parties around campfires, and he would play that song and we would sing along, only we changed the last line to, “Everybody let’s get stoned.” (I was a quasi-goodie goodie because I would not take a drag off the “roach” passing around, -but it was really because I didn’t want everyone else’s mouth on something that I would then put mine on~ so I would just say, ‘no thank you’ and it would make its way around.
Feeling old and laughing at all those memories is a Good thing!
It has the appearance of administration, police and mob are in cahoots. Rather than police doing the work they call in a paid group of hecklers to shut it down. The 24 hecklers are an arm of Berkeley.
As to Berkeley and these times, it’s a Stephen King story and “the gathering” of unclean spirits was present 50 years ago. It is and was eery.
^^^ are in ,
Being might be better.
My take is it’s a rent a mob. Stay out of there. A circumvention of applying actual law.
“The 24 hecklers are an arm of Berkeley.”
Wait! Doesn’t everyone know this already? This should have been completely extirpated and annihilated long ago.
“This resembles the way communist movements have historically depended on so‑called ‘useful idiots’.”
As a graduate of UC Berkeley and U of Penn, I have no issue with Federal defunding all programs at these fascist institutions other than purse science basic research and engineering. Not one penny of taxpayers money should flow into the coffers of neo-Marxist pro Islamists departments of miseducation and indoctrination. These little rich Marxist brats should be forced to spend a year in a third world country or live under sharia law.
@Alan
I did not attend Berkeley, but I have never seen anyone, but for some exceptions in their music department, emerge from an education there with anything to offer society whatsoever. The rest of the university might as well be a very expensive Slippery Rock. The same could be said for the likes of St. John’s or Middlebury. Good luck fighting with your classmates over a position teaching at St. John’s, because that is likely the best you can hope for, and they are literally the only people on earth that will give a toss about your ‘papers’.
An astonishing number of people never emerge as butterflies from the pupa that is academia, and that is not restricted to the 21st century. Get over your Alma Maters, for Pete’s sake; you are not 25 anymore, and no one cares if you can’t demonstrably perform. I trust my plumber (no disrespect *whatsoever* to trades people; in 2026, you are artisans, and you are) more than I do an Ivy Leaguer these days, because I know how rigorous those apprenticeships are.
Most from modern universities are very, very lucky if they make it out of the journeyman stage, and they run for office, and in blue places, they win.
Uh @james, Berklee College of Music (Boston) (superb school of musical talent) is NOT UCal Berkeley music – commonly stage mange-ridden nose pickers who generate nothing but “folk songs” related to itching private areas sociologically deficient from inadequate operational (Socialist State) use of tissue paper – as a fault of conservatives.
Many may cross-contaminate those two if unaware, and only the latter perceived and formulated on the basis of indoctrination versus the former’s emphasis on musical patterns and communicative soul interaction with audiences.
Fortunately, there are some excellent exceptions in the latter too despite their cesspool indoctrination.
Re:” The inexplicable position would leave the level of permitted speech to the mob at Berkeley.” And so it seems. Berkley is Berkley.
“Berkeley has long been viewed as one of the most viewpoint-intolerant universities in the United States. ”
Why does Professor Turley so frequently have an apparent issue with calling a spade a spade? What really has changed here? Berkeley has led the Marxist war to tear asunder the cohesive fabric of this nation and destroy the Republic since at least the early 1960s, when it served as an eager propaganda tool for the USSR.
The best self-own is when the purple-haired, nose-ringed, brain-fogged, idiot mob aligns themselves with Islam. They should do us all a favor and book tours to Afghanistan.
If you think the only people who object to Israel slaughtering civilians are the wacko piercings & freaks crowd, you haven’t been keeping up. For every one freak there are hundreds of normies who are sick of the Jewish supremacy and likewise object
It’s a PUBLIC UNIVERSITY, and the public should sue the administration for failing to act. The AG is the one who has the authority, and duty, to force equal protection upon public places. But if the AG fails to act then the public should step up.
Man – the Professor is really hitting on the most important legal stories of the day, isn’t he? I guess he doesn’t want to talk about the big stuff for some reason?
Yeah, like the downfall of the democrat party, let’s hear more about that.
The professor consistently writes about his passion–free speech. Similar to you writing about your passion–whatever your Democrat masters tell you to think.
Yes, his writing is passion-free.
Here are some interesting numbers. Look at them carefully, and you will better understand how/why student populations are so
different from the U.S. population as a whole (in which nearly half of Americans are conservative):
First, updated statistics as of August 2025 indicate that there are @15 million students enrolled in undergraduate studies (@16 million including graduate programs.) https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/college-enrollment-statistics/
But here’s the one to pay attention to:
“Liberal arts colleges are the least politically diverse. Many have almost no conservatives, and thus very low viewpoint diversity. But they have high sexual diversity, at nearly 40 percent LGBT.”
“Ivy League schools average 10-15 percent conservative and 60-75 percent liberal. Across 150 leading schools, there are nearly 2.5 liberals for every conservative.”
“Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 55-23 margin on campus, and liberals outnumber conservatives 53-21. Elite students are thus two-thirds more Democratic and twice as liberal as the American population.”
https://www.cspicenter.com/p/diverse-and-divided-a-political-demography
We are reminded that today’s students may be tomorrow’s leaders. They represent roughly 10-12% of the U.S. population.
What can America do to ensure that colleges and their students balance and/or roughly parallel the ideologies of America as a whole?
(oops. typo. The first reference should read ,” (@18 million including graduate programs.)
Apologies.
I also add that some of you might be wondering how I came up with “10-12%” above (since the U.S. population is some 340M+). The percentage of students aged 18-25 was about 9% of the “total U.S. population” in that age 18-25 group–That was in 2021. https://www.communitycommons.org/entities/5afc333f-427c-4322-89e2-d46b53348c70
My estimate may be low, considering DACA and the increase in foreign students over the last five years since 2021.)
Re: “What can America do to ensure that colleges and their students balance and/or roughly parallel the ideologies of America as a whole?” Establish K-12 American History and Civics curriculum in every school system. Institute universal mandatory military service after high school for both men and woman. There are reports that service recruitment is becoming segregated to military and geographic sources. Why should one particular group protect the asses of these brats.. Higher education can wait two years until these kids are dry behind the ears. Right now they have too much time on their hands. Severely reduce the number of student visas and screen them carefully for anti-American attitudes. Bring back G-d, Mom, and apple pie.
Trapper, all of your ideas could chip away at this. Doesn;t Israel require a “kibbitz” commitment for its graduating students?
We cannot help that conservatives do poorly with academics. Beer and football seem to be their lead expertise.
California is not failing; it is a failed state, as are almost all of its institutions. It’s really unnecessary to any longer report on the shenanigans going on in California. The state is far past the time of redemption. California is living on borrowed money, which means it is living on borrowed time.
^^^Jack, Del Monte went bankrupt. They have permission to pull out half million peach trees. Gbye peaches, America. Please save them gubmint.
The American consumer decided it no longer wanted to buy canned peaches. The peach trees are coming out to make room for something the American consumer does want to buy. Welcome to capitalism where the producers pivot from products that aren’t in demand to try to find products that will be.
Their failure follows their acquisition by a private equity buy. These typically are done to gut the company of available cash and strip the assets with the intention to sell off the husk. We are now at the point of selling the husk.
Re: “If Turley didn’t report about CA, what would you MAGAots do?” We’ll always have Minnesota…..and……Oregon, Washington, Illinois, New York, Virginia, New Hampshire, Maryland, and so on, and so on, and so on………. If you bring them here from there….they will bring there…..here!!
@Jack
It is. You can’t even repair an air conditioner that is more than a few years old in CA anymore due to regulations (refrigerants banned, parts discontinued, twice, over the span of the last decade) – you have to replace the unit (that is upward of $24,000, in case anyone is wondering), and technicians are required by law to report it if they discover issues. This sort of thing will be federal if the dems ever hold majority power again, the Biden admin certainly tried to push us in that direction, and that is a small part of the overall agenda. Always look to CA or VA or DC to see what the modern left have in store for us nationally, which is, in a word, madness.
Make no mistake: the only reason the IPCC recently decided cataclysmic climate change is no longer a possibility is because the dollars aren’t there, and with looming instances of negative energy scenarios in places that went all in on net zero, the elites realized it would not just be the ‘poors’ who would suffer.
PS – now, instead of cutting down old growth forests (whither the ‘green’ left?) for solar panels, they will do it for data centers, and dems that oppose data centers are still hoping they can kill the trees and build solar farms. Do not trust anything that comes from the modern left; they think only of themselves, because they are insane.
Let us not get started on requiring ID to enter the Obama gulag (AKA, The Obama Center), but not for voting in elections. This is vile and almost incomprehensible on a level that defies sanity to any sane person. They really do think we are that stupid, and some of us, unfortunately, are.
Conservatives are the ones in favor of clear cutting national forest so the silt runoff clogs streams and rivers and kills the fish so that privately owned lakes can charge premium prices to fisherman.
Those on the left are the ones working to protect trees. They want the solar farms to be build over parking lots and on top of buildings.
—
By the way – every polling place requires the voters to identify themselves. What they don’t do is prevent people from voting if they don’t have a driver’s license or, as the Republicans want, a complex and expensive ID process that is intended to be unavailable in Democratic party dense areas.
It is true – no matter the size of the home, every air conditioner is $24,000 to replace it.
—
They also said that it also assumed the world would massively increase its use of coal for the next 75 years.
Now the scientists behind the official UN climate modelling system appear to agree it no longer reflects reality.
They say that the worst case has been avoided because of climate policy and the lower costs of renewables.
—
In other words, because of the warning of a pending disaster various countries, such as China, and larger states, such as California, have taken steps that appear to be working.
This is similar to the effort to remove low molecular weight Chlorinated Fluorocarbons (CFCs) from use as refrigerants and aerosol can propellants in order to avoid damage to the ozone layer in fact avoided damage to the ozone layer.
@jack – “It’s really unnecessary to any longer report on the shenanigans going on in California.”
I respectfully disagree. My belief is that smart people learn from their own mistakes; very smart people learn from the mistakes of others; and dumb (or apathetic) people just don’t learn. Or to paraphrase the old quote “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.
Now I take your point that anyone who’s been paying attention shouldn’t be surprised at what goes on there, but amazingly it still IS surprising the degree to which many of the leaders in CA continue to aid and abet in crazy, illegal, illogical, destructive behavior and that the voters continue to support them. Ensuring that a bright light remains focused on that type of lunacy where ever it occurs is essential to allow sane people elsewhere to be prepared to defend themselves against it’s spread. Details matter in presenting an effective defense.
@Anonymous
You woefully overestimate the number of ‘smart’ people remaining. Modern generations have not been allowed to make mistakes, or if they have, they have not been treated as such. You need to wake up. Those rules, which are certainly sensible, no longer apply, and this IS what we are dealing with. The time to decide what kind of future we want to create is right now, and sad as it is, common sense is no longer a common commodity.
We would read about how anti-1stA Berkley is elsewhere. We would read about how unhinged leftists are from the news, as they report on the kind of stupid and crazy things leftists do. And not just in CA either, but in other Blue cities and states.
Why do you read about what cannot possibly affect you? Aside from California being a major economic engine for the United States and contributing more to the Federal income than the Federal services there?
If you live in California, you should leave and go somewhere you think is better.
I’m a bit confused on this one. I thought I was reading two stories, one about ai and one about Palestinian protesters. How do the two intersect?
You’re right, they sound like Antifa.
Where is law enforcement? Where is the directive to maintain the peace and protect the citizens? The very fact that we must ask those questions is a direct indicator of the sorry state of our society. Until we neutralize the progressive agenda to fundamentally transform this nation this will increase until America as we have known it, is gone. This is like the Hantavirus, it is infectious to those whose minds are already weakened by indoctrination or low IQ. isolation and removal of the virus is the only known preventative since it, like the Hantavirus, is lethal.
Sarcasm: Anon 10:09. Obviously you agree with Judge Zia Faruqui that lodging a protest by assassinating the US Government complete chain of succession isn’t a crime and the poor, well meaning CalTech indoctrinate who did it should be released with a scolding?
“…there was no crime. Do you get that? No crime…”
=====
The university has very clear rules and regulations and if there’s disruption on campus the police have the right to trespass a person out of the building. And they could have done that here, probably did. And if they didn’t follow the trespass rules they could have been arrested. Tresspass is a crime Brainiac. SMH 🙄
Trespassing IS a crime.
@whimsicalmama
I can answer that to a degree, given my brother in-law is a sergeant in LAPD and a career cop of the same. They are there and waiting, but forbidden to do much of anything. In 2020, he told us the police could have shut down the summer riots in a couple of days if they could have just done their jobs; they were not allowed to do it.
Don’t blame law enforcement, they would LOVE to go in; blame the Marxist left, and all of the people Soros et. al. have installed over the past decade or so. Officers’ lives could be ruined overnight in such places if they act in discordance of the leftist, legally binding (in those places) directives. 🤷🏻♂️
Police can shut down protests by opening fire with automatic weapons. Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom.
It sure worked at Kent State.
@Anonymous
Sure. And in an age where people talk about ‘Ozempic butt’ unironically in the same breath, we are supposed to take you seriously. Spare us. Your grasp of the bigger picture could fit on the head of a pin. This is not going to work out for you.
Berkeley hasn’t changed in many decades. If the school burned to the ground, it would be a welcome relief to the many Americans that have tolerated Berkeley’s purely leftist shenanigans. Defund the school, at a minimum.
“What is missing is not the authority to act, but the will to do so.”
The faculty and administration don’t lack for will when they want to act. In this case they agree with the mob so they’re happy to remain passive.
What if the attendees stood up to the mob and slowly drive them out of the building, shout them down, took their photo and as the left does publish it. Passivity is not going to win with this group. Violence is not the answer either. If society continues to give in then the mob will rule and normal people will be the ones to suffer, until the mob eats itself.
Same as saying lacking the will to act
The more things change, the more they stay the same….
mike p