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Townhall.com::Jason Antebi, Occidental college, and free speech::By Be... http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/BenShapiro/2006/08/25/jason_ante...

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ON THE BLOG NOW: Jason Antebi, Occidental Email It college, and free speech Updated at 9:34 AM Print It 10 for 10 By Ben Shapiro Friday, August 25, 2006 Take Action Updated: 9:21 AM 08/25/06 Send an email to Ben Shapiro Israel Won? Book Club Updated: 9:12 AM 08/25/06 Diversity in Action: Press Read Article & Comments (0) Trackbacks(0) Post Your Comments Finds Way to Praise Human Sacrifice and Cannibalism Updated: 2:04 AM 08/25/06 Jason Antebi can be offensive. There's no way around it. When Antebi Wonkette Joins the Great attended Occidental College, from 2000 to 2004, he ticked off many of his Pork Fight fellow students. Antebi was a conservative member of the Occidental Updated: 11:56 PM 08/24/06 Student Government and a Howard Stern-type disk jockey on the Hitchens on South America, Occidental student station. His political opponents, in a failed effort to The War on Drugs, The War With Islamic Fascism, The recall him from his student government position, called him a "racist" and war at Home, and the "anti-Semite" (Antebi is Jewish); his door was defaced with the words Presbyterians. (Yeah, It Was "You're a f---ing racist"; he was accused of "sexually harassing women." A Long Interview.) Updated: 10:15 PM 08/24/06 Antebi registered complaints with the Occidental administration; the Today's Opinion administration did nothing, telling him to deal with it on his own. So Antebi took to the airwaves to denounce two of his opponents in Mike Gallagher Is it time for "Sex Offender Island" particular. He did so with his usual gusto, calling one of his opponents "Vander Douche" and another "Sam the Bearded Feminist." Of course, Jonathan Garthwaite Can she see it in his eyes? this was the M.O. of his show, which the administration of Occidental knew -- participants in other aspects of the show included Occidental Alan Sears The curious case of NEA priorities President Ted Mitchell, Occidental Associate Dean of Students and Allison Kasic Back to the basics Director of Residence and Greek Life Rameen Talesh, and Occidental Dean of Admission Vince Cuseo. Roger Schlesinger A distant view of a serious situation The blowback was swift and harsh. The insulted students promptly filed sexual harassment charges through Occidental against Antebi. He was Thomas Sowell Race and economics unceremoniously fired from his disk jockey position, and the Student Government as a whole was dissolved. Mitchell sent out an e-mail Jonah Goldberg Wal-Mart drives Democrats batty demeaning Antebi. The Occidental General Counsel screamed slurs at Antebi in a hallway. Then the "impartial" Occidental administration found Townhall Columnists: Antebi guilty of sexual harassment and ordered him to apologize and undergo psychiatric counseling. The Talk About This Article Antebi refused to accept the punishment and sued under California's Leonard Law, which reads in relevant part, "(a) No private postsecondary Do you have something to say? Ads by Google educational institution shall make or enforce any rule subjecting any student to disciplinary sanctions solely on the basis of conduct that is Make your opinion heard! Sign up speech or other communication that, when engaged in outside the to post an opinion now. campus or facility of a private postsecondary institution, is protected from POST A MESSAGE READ A MESSAGE governmental restriction by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or Section 2 of Article 1 of the California Constitution." Similar Articles Antebi's situation was satire and, therefore, legally protected under the First Amendment. The curious case of NEA priorities Jason Antebi, Occidental college, and free speech Nonetheless, the Court of Appeals determined that Antebi had no Political indoctrination seeping into private schools standing to file his suit. Their basis? One provision of the Leonard Law Criticism of evolution can't be silenced reads, "Any student enrolled in a private postsecondary institution that Sponge Cake Phil has made or enforced any rule in violation of subdivision (a) may Are academic elites communists? commence a civil action to obtain appropriate injunctive and declaratory Colleges for Jews to Avoid, Part I relief as determined by the court." This provision, the court concluded, means that a student must be enrolled at the college he is suing at the Don't think outside the college box time of the lawsuit in order to sue. Antebi graduated shortly before he College stupidity filed his lawsuit; therefore he could not file his lawsuit. Martin Luther Queen, Jr.

This interpretation renders the Leonard Law meaningless. Under this interpretation, if a college wishes to avoid a lawsuit from a complaining student, they simply expel the student. The student is no longer "enrolled" at the college, and any violation of his First Amendment rights must be overlooked by the courts. If a student is expelled for stating that homosexuality is a sin, he has no recourse; if a student is expelled for stating that he opposes the war in Iraq, he has no recourse.

Antebi is now appealing his case to the California Supreme Court. His allies include the ACLU and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. Is Antebi often offensive? Yes. Have his rights been violated? Yes. As long as colleges quash free speech they find disadvantageous, colleges will never be institutions of higher learning. The same people

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who quashed Antebi routinely quash diversity of thought.

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