JOSH CHAFETZ doesn’t like my title of “free speech on the left” below, referring to the student protest threats that led to the cancellation of an appearance by Chief Justice William Rehnquist. He says it’s rudeness, but not censorship.

Well, he’s sort of right. But while the First Amendment, which protects free speech, bars government censorship but not rudeness, that does not mean that things that don’t involve the First Amendment don’t involve free speech. And you can bet that the rude students were high-fiving at their success in getting the appearance cancelled via a mere threat.

Shorewood High alumnus Ann Haker says that Shorewood is in fact a haven of censorship, too, which puts a somewhat different complexion on things:

Shorewood High is my alma mater too (class of ’85). I’m embarrassed by the Rehnquist disinvite. Thought you might like this link:

SHS has a speech code banning specific words, and any others that a teacher deems “disruptive”, and the penalty can be getting arrested by the police.

Nice liberal place, isn’t it?

Hmm. I wonder if that speech code would have been used had students threatened to disrupt a speech by Janet Reno, or Michael Moore?

By claiming the authority to censor student speech, and then not exercising it in instances where they may agree, the authorities — in my opinion — become complicit in the behavior, which turns rudeness into censorship.

UPDATE: This post by Justin Adams says it better than I did.