The FIRE Comes To Defense Of Cornell Student Under Investigation for Allegedly Posting ‘Zionists must die’ on Social Media
“Punishing clearly protected political speech is foreclosed by Cornell’s clear commitment to upholding student free speech rights, even when some consider the views expressed to be offensive or hateful”
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has called for Cornell to end the investigation, citing Cornell’s supposed commitment to free speech.
The Ithaca Journal reports:
National group calls for Cornell to halt investigation into Valdez
The national Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) sent a letter Wednesday to university officials, demanding that the school halt their investigation into a social media post by student Maria Lima Valdez.
Valdez — an undergraduate student majoring in Government and Africana Studies — allegedly posted the message “Zionists must die” on the social media platform Instagram, prompting the Jan. 11, response from Cornell president Martha Pollack, who announced that Valdez “will be held fully accountable and appropriately sanctioned,” for the comment.
At the time of reporting, Valdez’s social media profiles on platforms including Instagram and LinkedIn have been taken down, and she is now under investigation by due to the posting, which Pollack said, attests to the commitment of the university to keep the campus safe and welcoming.
FIRE asserted Wednesday that the announcement “flies in the face of Cornell’s free speech promises,” and that Valdez’s post did not constitute harassment.
“Punishing clearly protected political speech is foreclosed by Cornell’s clear commitment to upholding student free speech rights, even when some consider the views expressed to be offensive or hateful,” FIRE Senior Program Officer Zach Greenberg said in a letter to university officials. “Cornell cannot keep its promise to respect students’ expressive freedoms if it also punishes Valdez.”
In the letter, Greenberg requested on behalf of the group, a response from university officials confirming Cornell will not punish Valdez before the end of January.
Valdez is active in the Cornell Tradition Fellowship, Mexsa, Residential Student Congress, and Cornell Outdoor Education groups and heads the Cornell Farmworkers Program.
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Comments
Re: “Zionists must die”
The school is not required to adopt constitutional “Free Speech” standards for its student conduct rules.
It’s not required to do so, but it is what universities are supposed to do, and claim to do, and it’s their official policy. Except that in practice it isn’t their policy except when it comes to Jews. It should be, but it isn’t.
FIRE is consistently pushing the same line that it has been pushing ever since it was founded. It’s been protesting every time someone was punished for saying that all men are created equal but not all cultures are, or that men and women are, on average, good at different things, or that you can’t change your sex by saying you have, etc. So it’s completely correct for it to take the same position this time. Otherwise it would have a double standard.
But the college has ignored FIRE all those other times, so it can’t suddenly find Voltaire now. Either it should punish this guy as it has all those other people, or it should announce a complete change in policy and pledge that from now on it will have completely free speech; in which case I would still say, “That’s great, but start with the next case”.
There is no case law on whether Cornell’s four statutory colleges constitute “state action” for the purpose of applying the First Amendment.
There’s a big difference between stating that men and women are not the same and advocating for the murder of an entire ethnicity.
No, there is not; at least not legally. Advocacy is the very core of protected speech; the courts have been clear that “mere advocacy” cannot be restricted in any way, no matter what it is the person is advocating.
I can’t give you the citation now but I have been told that there IS authoritative case law saying that Cornell’s land-grant colleges are NOT subject to New York State’s FOIA law. If that is correct, it would seem that they are also not subject to the 1st/14th Amendments either. I would love to be proven wrong.
How is threatening someone with death protected speech?
Threatening someone with death is not protected speech, however this speech does not make a true threat agains an individual, so it’s obviously protected. See Watts v. US.
Is there a difference between “Zionists must die” and “Jews must die”?
It seems like “Jews must die” would be terribly threatening to all the Jewish students, and should not be protected speech.
There’s no difference in the two, in that they’re both protected political speech.
It is protected speech. So is “Blacks must die”, or “F*gs must die”, or “Eat the rich”, etc. And in principle Cornell ought to tolerate all of these things. But the fact is that it doesn’t, and didn’t see a problem with that until just now. Suddenly when it’s Jews, it has discovered freedom of speech. But not for long; the next time someone says something it doesn’t like, it’s going to forget about it again. Because the real problem is that the Cornell administration doesn’t really object to this speech, it only pretends to.
A person can be a “Zionist”, just believe in the establishment of a Jewish nation and not be Jewish.
If only this “scholar” had posted, “Let’s have a discussion about Zionism”.
Yes, not all zionists are Jews. Probably most zionists are not Jews. But “anti-zionism” is a code word for “antisemitism”. When “anti-zionists” say “zionist” they mean “Jew”. They regard non-Jewish zionists as “Jew-lovers”, so they hate them too, just as white supremacists hate “nigger-lovers”, but that’s a derivative hatred. Just look at the targets they choose for their terror attacks; these seem never to be chosen for actual advocacy zionism, but only for being Jewish.
I believe what she posted constitutes harassment and intimidation. While she is a vile person and Cornell has the right to discipline her if they choose, they should not as it was a private media account not a school resource. What they could do is let her finish out the year and then transfer or leave immediately if she chooses making clear that the student is not the type Cornell needs in it’s student body.
I understand majoring in Government but Africana? That needs to be terminated.
Who is she “harassing or intimidating? The set of all Instagram users who self-identify as Zionist?
What if the post was “All Zionists should suffer from a venereal disease”?
What if the post was “The readers of this thread know who you are, and you will all die.” [without stating the time frame e.g., of natural causes with the next 100 years?]
What if the post was “It is easy to post that on Instagram, but if you ever say it to my face, I will kill you.”?
Punishing students or faculty for extramural statements is a slippery slope.
When we have teens being expelled because they have a range day photo on their Facebook, I fail to see why this statement should be treated differently.
Indeed, but
(1) the correct response is to oppose the former abuse of power, not to support another one; especially since we’re discussing FIRE, which has been fighting against such abuses for many years.
(2) there is a big difference between high schools and universities. High schools’ duties include disciplining minors; universities are dealing with adults.
I’m a Zionist. I’m not Jewish.
Let’s grant the free speech leeway and move on to deeper questions. We must follow our principles once these persons arrive. But what is the pathology in the admissions and faculty recruitment process that brings these half-baked theories and ideologies from addled minds to the campus while excluding scholars and genuine discovery?
On another matter, FIRE went too far in opposing an investigation. Comments like “Zionists must die” warrant an investigation into ties to violent radical and terrorist groups, just as the Secret Service will show up at your door for like comments to their clients.
Chilling effect.