Free Republic

Initially labeled a “suspicious white male” by police investigating a dispute at the multicultural center on the campus of California Polytechnic State University, student Steve Hinkel continues to defy university officials who want him to apologize for posting a flyer advertising a conservative speaker. The original dispute occurred Nov. 12, 2002, when Hinkle, a member of the College Republicans, entered the Cal Poly Multicultural Center to post a flyer promoting an upcoming speech by Mason Weaver, a conservative black author of the book It’s OK to Leave the Plantation. The book analyzes the dangers of blacks becoming too dependent on...

Public University Gives Heckler’s Veto to Students Who Claim “Offense” SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA—In the spring of 2003, a student at the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) was found guilty of “disruption” for posting a flier—in a public area—that some students found “offensive.” The public university placed unequal rights above the Bill of Rights. “Allowing some individuals to veto the protected expression of others is an unconscionable betrayal of Cal Poly’s moral and legal obligations,” said Thor L. Halvorssen, CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). On November 12, 2002, Steve Hinkle, an undergraduate and a...