You've been warned: speech under fire.

• Author: Soave, Robby
• Position: Citings - College students on freedom of speech in campuses - Brief article

FRIENDS OF free speech, despair: A majority of college students believe universities should restrict which kinds of expression are allowed on campuses, and more than six in 10 favor mandatory trigger warnings.

These findings come from a new poll undertaken by McLaughlin & Associates and published in The New Criterion. While the overwhelming majority of respondents agreed in the abstract that free speech and intellectual diversity are important ingredients for healthy campus debate, they grew much more inclined toward censorship when asked about specific kinds of speech.

Half said universities should prohibit other students from publishing cartoons that criticize religious or ethnic groups. Fifty-two percent said people who engage in "hate speech" should be prohibited from speaking on campus. And 72 percent said racist, sexist, and homophobic language should lead to disciplinary action.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of the students who held these opinions were ignorant about the relevant laws. Just 68...