Mike Hilgers

Nebraska Attorney General

Attorney General Peterson Speaks to Culture of Free Speech and Civility on Campus

Today, a group of over 1,400 Americans, including 24 Attorneys General, sent a letter to Dean Heather Gerken of Yale Law School urging her and her administration to take tangible steps to address the rapidly deteriorating culture of free speech and civility on campus. The letter was prompted by the noisy and threatening student behavior that disrupted an event involving U.S. Supreme Court advocates Kristen Waggoner of Alliance Defending Freedom and Monica Miller of the American Humanist Association. 
 
This event involved a crowd of Yale law students who hurled insults, disrupting a legal panel discussion about remedies for First Amendment violations. The students' behavior necessitated the law school's guest speakers to be escorted by police for their own safety.
 
The letter calls upon Dean Gerken to take disciplinary action consistent with Yale's free speech policies against the students involved in the inappropriate and dangerous incident while correcting and/or retracting her previous statements that downplayed the troublesome event. 
 
"It is imperative for our Nation and the rule of law that our future lawyers are equipped to undertake critical thinking, intellectual engagement, and a clash of ideas while maintaining civility," stated Attorney General Peterson, "Absence of respectful argumentation will undermine our courtrooms and limit the ability of justice to be served."