Students at Vanderbilt University are targeting Carol Swain, a professor of law and politics at Vanderbilt (and a member of the James Madison Society, of which I also am a member), because she has criticized Islam — in other words, because she has her own views on matters of civic importance.
I do not share Professor Swain’s view that Islam itself is the problem. It seems to me that many Muslims disagree with the peculiar jurisprudence of Al-Qaeda and ISIS supporters, and I am not in a position to discern which groups or individuals have the best interpretations of the Koran and Hadith. So, I am not prepared to paint with as broad a brush as Professor Swain uses. But it doesn’t matter whether I agree with her. She is a reasonable, accomplished scholar expressing a view that reasonable people hold. And even if I thought her view were unreasonable, she has a right to express it as long as it does not amount to defamation or some other legally-cognizable harm.
Now Vanderbilt’s Provost has issued a public letter that could be read to support the student protesters, asserting, “Freedom to share ideas … is not the freedom to take actions that discriminate against or threaten others.” No one seriously thinks that Professor Swain has threatened anyone. So, the complaint comes down to the charge that she has discriminated. But as Gerald McDermott observes, to think is to discriminate. “All true discourse discriminates between what is true and false, good and evil. Without discrimination in thinking, there is no good judgment.” Discrimination is what thinking, judging, and acting consists of. The question in each instance is whether the discrimination is justified (i.e., discriminating between true and false) or unjustified (i.e., discriminating on the basis of race).
Without some indication — any indication! — that Professor Swain has discriminated against anyone unreasonably or unlawfully, the Provost’s statement is tantamount to charging that Professor Swain is culpable for thinking and exercising judgment.
One more fact: Professor Swain is black.
Adam J. MacLeod
Adam J. MacLeod is a member of the Maine and Massachusetts (inactive) bars and an Associate Professor at Faulkner University, Jones School of Law. He is the author of “Property and Practical Reason” (Cambridge University Press) and dozens of articles in journals in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, many of which can be accessed at his website.
