Sex talk ban: campus speech restrictions.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Citings - Brief article

IN MAY the Departments of Justice and Education sent a joint settlement letter to the University of Montana regarding an investigation into sexual harassment and assault on that campus. The letter was explicitly intended as "a blueprint for colleges and universities throughout the country." That alarmed the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which saw it as a blueprint for attacking free expression.

In a May press release, FIRE charged that the Montana letter mandates "a breathtakingly broad definition of sexual harassment that makes virtually every student in the United States a harasser while ignoring the First Amendment" Any college getting any federal funding would have to obey.

The letter defines sexual harassment as "any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature," including purely verbal overtures. Speech would be actionable harassment if a listener took...