SHOULD WARD CHURCHILL BE FIRED? Eugene Volokh has a long and thoughtful post; he agrees with me and with Steven Bainbridge that the answer is no — except that false claims of being an Indian, under his circumstances, might constitute resume fraud. Read the whole thing.

And here’s Bainbridge’s take:

This is one of those occasions when those of us on the right need to suck it up and echo the line famously attributed to Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” We do not remain true to our values if we are willing to say “free speech for me, but not for thee,” even if that is what Churchill likely would say if the shoe were on the other foot.

He’s right.

UPDATE: More background on Churchill from Gerard van der Leun. And The Belmont Club wonders why the story is getting so much attention, nationally, concluding: “the attention lavished on a relatively obscure academic recalls the inordinate power of the Scott Peterson and Michael Jackson cases to put more newsworthy subjects into the shade. The fascination may not be with Ward Churchill himself but with the Leftist demimonde glimpsed briefly through him.”