With a lot of big Supreme Court decisions on the horizon, David and Sarah discuss an unexpected concurrence from Justice Thomas in Borden v. United States, a case about how broadly the government can define “use of force.” Our hosts also review a decision from the 20th Judicial Circuit of Virginia about a school that suspended a professor for not using students’ preferred pronouns and an announcement that the Texas Bar Association will investigate Ken Paxton for his lawsuit to overturn the 2020 election. Finally, they chat about a controversy at Yale Law School involving the infamous “tiger mom” law professor Amy Chua.
Show Notes:
-Borden v. United States
-20th Circuit of Virginia Ruling on preferred pronouns case
-Texas Bar Association investigating Ken Paxton
The shownotes should include the video from that poor schmoe at the 9th Circuit...
I think David raises valid concerns about the dangers of speech regulation of teachers and classrooms.
At the same time, this is public education funded with tax dollars. Our education system is our chance to make sure the next generation has been taught properly and understands the benefits of the classical liberal order. And a proper appreciation for the "miracle" (as Jonah Goldberg puts it). Without that education, we will get generations of people that will look to tear down the classical liberal order, and there will be a very real danger in destroying the miracle.
At the very least in k-12 education there should be a strong civics, economics, and constitutional law component weaved throughout the time there (grade dependent of course). Emphasizing the benefits we get from our system of government, economics and civil liberties.
And while I agree that college professors should have more latitude, that still leaves a lot of room for the official college administration position, not to mention required classes to graduate.
Finally, while I do think college level academic freedom is a an important good, that shouldn't mean carte blanche. An easy example then would be that a professor teaching that the holocaust was a good thing, or that we should re-institute slavery should not be employed by a public institution.
I think some of the worst woke zealots positions are not far from that mark, and likewise should not be employed teaching our kids to hate America (on tax payer dime no less).