Kenneth L. Marcus, president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, has written a letter to the editor of the Hill responding to an op-ed from UCLA’s Sondra Hale and UC Hastings law student Bekah Wolf. Predictably, Hale and Wolf equated the campaign (which includes the Middle East Forum) to hold Middle East studies programs accountable for providing the “diversity of perspectives” required by Title-VI federal funding with stifling free speech. As Marcus puts it:
Apparently, they believe that the First Amendment protects them against the unappetizing prospect of hearing views different than their own. . . . When Middle East Studies centers refuse to provide a podium for speakers who challenge their anti-Israel politics, they are the ones who stifle free speech on campus.