Quick,
what’s
the
difference
between
a
punishable
protest
and
a
study
group
at
Harvard?
Turns
out,
all
you
have
to
do
is
not
advertise
your
presence
in
advance
or
show
your
ID!
Despite
the
institution’s
previous
framing
as
studying
while
wearing
a
scarf
or
having
a
stickered
laptop
as
“protest”
and
“distracting,”
a
legal
cohort
of
over
50
people
was
able
to
quietly
study
in
the
law
library
while
the
staff
seemed
none
the
wiser.
The
Crimson
has
coverage:
More
than
50
Harvard
Law
School
students
quietly
protested
in
Langdell
Hall’s
library
Friday
afternoon,
the
third
study-in
protest
to
occur
at
HLS
this
semester.The
protest,
which
lasted
for
roughly
40
minutes,
ended
without
library
administrators
checking
the
IDs
of
participants.
While
activists
were
quick
to
celebrate
the
lack
of
ID
checks
as
a
victory
over
the
administration,
an
HLS
official
said
library
staff
did
not
have
prior
knowledge
of
the
protest.
…
Students
entered
Langdell
at
12:20
p.m.,
where
they
silently
studied
with
fliers
taped
to
their
laptops
condemning
Israel’s
war
in
Gaza.
More
than
20
students
also
wore
white
t-shirts
that
read:
“We
were
banned
from
Harvard
Library
for
dreaming
of
a
free
Palestine.”
It
is
hard
to
read
the
HLS
official’s
“we
didn’t
have
prior
knowledge”
excuse
for
not
carding
the
students
and
take
it
seriously.
The
university
is
defining
protest
as
“an
attempt
to
send
a
common
message”
and
anyone
who
is
literally
being
paid
by
one
of
the
world’s
most
premier
universities
to
help
students
sift
through
complex
information
in
a
timely
manner
shouldn’t
need
a
heads
up
via
email
to
figure
out
that
20
people
in
the
library
wearing
“We
were
banned
from
Harvard
Library
for
dreaming
of
a
free
Palestine”
shirts
at
the
same
time
should
count
as
a
protest
under
the
school’s
goofy
definition.
The
school
is
also
heading
toward
another
blunder:
perverse
incentivization.
A
protest
is
one
thing,
but
a
protest
that
spawns
collectible
in-group
memorabilia?
That’s
cool.
And
you
know
what
cool
protests
do?
Spread.
Did
we
learn
nothing
from
mandating
parental
advisory
stickers
on
music?
“It
actually
became
a
sales
tool
—
it
made
it
easier
for
teenagers
to
identify
the
cool
stuff.”
Not
only
will
Harvard
have
to
force
its
librarians
to
police
student
wardrobes
to
prevent
future
bad
PR,
they’ve
also
introduced
some
plausible
deniability
into
the
mix.
Is
that
person
wearing
a
“We
were
banned
from
Harvard
Library
for
dreaming
of
a
free
Palestine”
in
solidarity
with
the
protestors
as
an
act
of
solidarity
or
because
they
thought
the
shirt
was
cool?
Is
it
still
a
protest
if
the
attempt
to
send
a
common
message
is
just
to
signify
that
“this
shirt
is
cool”
or
“I’m
cool
for
wearing
it”?
If
so,
the
librarians
are
going
to
spend
more
time
focusing
on
wardrobe
choices
than
call
numbers.
Harvard
Law
School
Students
Protest
in
Library,
Leave
Before
ID
Checks
[The
Crimson]
Earlier:
So
Much
For
Free
Speech:
Harvard
Law
Students
Punished
For
Reading
Together
At
Campus
Library
Harvard
Doubles
Down
On
‘Protest’
Retaliation
&
Punishes
Teachers
For
Studying
In
Library
Harvard
Triples
Down
On
Punishing
Campus
Free
Speech,
Adds
Prayer
To
No-No
List
Chris
Williams
became
a
social
media
manager
and
assistant
editor
for
Above
the
Law
in
June
2021.
Prior
to
joining
the
staff,
he
moonlighted
as
a
minor
Memelord™
in
the
Facebook
group Law
School
Memes
for
Edgy
T14s.
He
endured
Missouri
long
enough
to
graduate
from
Washington
University
in
St.
Louis
School
of
Law.
He
is
a
former
boatbuilder
who
cannot
swim, a
published
author
on
critical
race
theory,
philosophy,
and
humor,
and
has
a
love
for
cycling
that
occasionally
annoys
his
peers.
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected] and
by
tweet
at @WritesForRent.