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Harvard Triples Down On Punishing Campus Free Speech, Adds Prayer To No-No List – Above the Law

Freedom
of
speech,
freedom
of
religion,
and
right
to
associate
freely
are
bedrock
principles
for
a
democracy
to
hold.
That
said,
Harvard
is
doing
a
great
job
of
showing
its
students,
staff,
and
the
world
that
it
isn’t
a
democracy.
After

suspending
law
students

and

professors

for
quietly
studying
in
the
library,
the
students
asked
the
school
to
reverse
the
suspensions.

The
Crimson

covered
the
school’s
refusal:

Harvard
Law
School
administrators
rejected
appeals
from
students
to
reverse
temporary
suspensions
from
the
school’s
library
in
Langdell
Hall
over
their
participation
in
pro-Palestine
“study-ins”
last
month,
according
to
the
school’s
chapter
of
the
National
Lawyers
Guild.

“Absent
mistaken
identity,
meaning
only
that
you
were
not
a
participant
at
the
organized
demonstration
and
have
been
mistaken
for
another
person,
the
HLSL
is
applying
University
rules,
and
your
suspension
remains,”
[Assistant
dean
for
library
and
information
services
Amanda]
Watson
wrote
in
an
email
to
one
student
obtained
by
The
Crimson.

Harvard’s
commitment
to
the
ban
has
its
students
asking
very
reasonable
questions
about
why
their
“study-in”
was
more
disruptive
to
the
use
of
the
library
than
other
coordinated
events,
like
the
school-sanctioned
Halloween
event.

If
the
prior
enforcement
of
Harvard’s
censorship
wasn’t
enough
for
you,
how
about
cracking
down
on
prayer?
At
the

Divinity

school?
Also
from

The
Crimson
:

Harvard
Divinity
School
students
were
issued
two-week
suspensions
from
its
library
for
participating
in
a
pro-Palestine
“pray-in”
demonstration
last
Monday.

Divinity
School
Dean
Marla
F.
Frederick
announced
the
suspensions
in
an
email
sent
Monday
morning.
In
the
email,
Frederick
acknowledged
the
“importance
of
prayer.”

“At
HDS
we
honor
the
importance
of
prayer
and
what
it
represents
for
so
many.
And,
as
one
colleague
reminded
us
recently,
‘prayer
is
protest,’”
Frederick
wrote.
“In
and
of
itself,
advocacy
for
the
cause
of
people
under
duress

whether
in
Israel,
Gaza,
or
other
parts
of
the
world

is
noble,”
she
added.

Noble
or
not,
prayer-as-protest
is
still
enough
to
get
you
kicked
out
the
library?
What’s
next?
Will
a
study
group
reading
a
paper

on
how
the
bombing
of
Gaza
is
worsening
global
warming

get
environmental
science
students
kicked
from
the
building
for
protesting?
Would
a
silent
in-depth
costs/benefit
analysis
of
the
United
States’
spending
on
Isreal’s
military
operations
by
reading

Linda
Bilmes
‘s
work
count
as
a
protest
if
10
people
are
reading
together?
What
if
it
were
three

or
one?

Harvard’s
crest
is
emblazoned
with
the
word
Veritas

Latin
for
truth.
To
know
the
truth
on
campus
still
appears
to
be
fair
game.
But
pursuit
of
it
through
study,
prayer,
or
the
company
of
like-minded
pursuers,
will
get
you
banned
from
the
library.


Harvard
Law
School
Denies
Student
Appeals
to
Reverse
Library
Bans

[The
Crimson]

Students
Suspended
from
Harvard
Divinity
School
Library
After
Pray-In

[The
Crimson]


Earlier
:

This
Is
The
Actual
Campus
Censorship
The
Free
Speech
People
Should
Be
Worried
About


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



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.