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2017 was a hell of a year 
for the First Amendment.

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Nowhere was more central
to this culture war

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than the campuses
and universities across America,

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including right here, 
at the University of Nevada, Reno.

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Two UNR students became infamous 
for their speech in the past year,

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found themselves embroiled in two
of the biggest free speech controversies

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of the past couple of years.

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Student Peter Cytanovic
became the face of white nationalism

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when a picture of him snarling, 
holding a tiki torch

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at the Unite the Right Rally 
in Charlottesville went viral.

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On the complete opposite end 
of the political spectrum,

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if you can call it that,

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graduate Colin Kaepernick
went on to the NFL

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and used his position to highlight
police brutality and racial injustice,

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by taking a knee
during the National Anthem.

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Both men became incredibly 
controversial for their speech.

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There were calls and campaigns for both
men to be expelled for their opinions.

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But regardless, whether you agree with one
of them, or both of them, or neither,

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the First Amendment protects
both of those men and their opinions

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from censorship and retaliation
by the government.

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That's a good thing,
and I want to tell you why.

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It's becoming more common for me to hear

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that we should have
lower protections for speech,

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that specifically, we should
criminalize hate speech.

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I hear this from the left a lot.

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I think a lot of progressives

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envision a world where people
like Colin Kaepernick

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can take a knee
and protest of racial injustice,

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without fear of retaliation 
from the government,

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without fear that the President
will pressure the NFL to fire him.

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But they also want to live in a world
where a government school like UNR

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can expel a student like Peter Cytanovic
for his hateful views.

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That is a fantasy.

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And more than that, it's dangerous.

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I'm a progressive,

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it's not hard for me to pick between
white nationalism and racial justice.

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One is abhorrent, one is an overdue
demand for equal rights.

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But what would happen if I gave
a government the right to decide

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which of those men
was too hateful to speak?

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President Trump 
is a pretty useful barometer.

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He called the marchers
at Charlottesville "very fine people,"

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while reserving his ire
for black football players who take a knee

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as "sons of bitches."

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Your hate speech may not
be the government's idea of hate speech.

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I sure as hell know, it's not mine.

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But even if you happen
to agree with Trump,

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can you be confident that
the next President, the next government,

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will agree with your world view?

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You shouldn't be.

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That's why, above all,
I am an anti-authoritarian.

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I know that the U.S. government
has a long history

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of wielding its raw power
against the vulnerable communities

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that speak truth to that power,

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against those who seek
to change the status quo.

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And because I want every student
to be able to take a knee

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without fear of government censorship,

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I am a true believer 
in the First Amendment.

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But even as a First Amendment attorney,

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I find a lot of the common tropes
and myths about the First Amendment

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really unsatisfying.

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So, I wanna go through
three of these myths, dust them off,

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and hopefully in the process,

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we'll come up with three practical rules
for exercising your free speech rights,

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powerfully and strategically.

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So the first one is one I suspect
we all learned in Kindergarten -

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if you remember your nursery rhymes,
please feel free to join me.

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Sticks and stones may break my bones
but words will never hurt me.

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Does anyone, as an adult,
actually believe this?

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It's manifestly untrue.

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I'm a free speech attorney precisely
because I believe that words matter;

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it's ludicrous to protect free speech
by denying its very power.

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So, why do we lie to kids, right?

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Why do we fabricate this thing for them?

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Well, it's because humans of all ages
can be vicious; it's just true.

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And when a kid is at the receiving end
of injustice, a taunt, hateful language,

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we want that kid
to be empowered, not diminished.

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In February, notorious troll Milo Yiannopoulos

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had a planned speech at UC Berkeley.

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Students and others 
in the community went nuts.

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There were protests, there were riots,
things were set on fire.

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The administration cancelled his talk.

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In April, there was a repeat, same thing,
except this time, it was Ann Coulter.

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She was going to speak,

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school officials said,
"There's going to be riots."

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They cancelled her talk.

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Those two individuals, Ann and Milo,

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man, they became martyrs.

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They got to take on the roll of victims
of liberal censorship.

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They went on media tours,
the media ate it up.

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They got more attention 
for being silenced than they ever did

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for trying to peddle 
their actual substantive views.

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So, I think it's helpful to think 
of professional, provocateurs and trolls

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as we would those schoolyard bullies.

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Yeah, their words can hurt, 
there's no point in denying that.

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But the better question is, 
how do we respond to that, right?

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And a troll, a provocateur,
wants you to censor them.

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That's part of the goal,
it feeds into their power,

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it gives them something else to sell.

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So, we don't have to march to that tune.

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You don't have to play that role.

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And we can think of them,
like these bullies,

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yeah their words hurt, 
but there's also power in sass.

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There's power in refusing 
to be goaded into a fight

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or to play the role of censor.

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So, don't do it.

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But some words wound in ways
that are different from others.

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Which brings us to myth number two.

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I hear this one a lot, 
particularly online.

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We all know that hate speech 
isn't protected by the First Amendment.

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Not so.

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As that anecdote about Trump
hopefully made you think,

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hate speech can be 
in the eye of the beholder,

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ear of the behearer, I guess,
if that's a word.

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Just this week in Spain,

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a man was arrested
for the hate crime - this is real -

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of calling cops "slackers" on Facebook.

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Police are covered
under the Spanish Hate Crime Law.

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That's what criticizing
your government looks like

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in a country without a First Amendment.

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But we don't have to protect speech
just out of paranoia

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that our government will warp
what we think speech and hate speech are,

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there's also an upshot.

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In the late 1960's,

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a KKK leader named Charles Brandenburg
was arrested on criminal charges

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of incitement to violence
for holding a KKK rally.

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The speech was as abhorrent,
as vicious, racist as you might imagine.

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But the KKK's lawyers took it
all the way up to the Supreme Court.

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And they challenged this crime,

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said he had a free speech right
to be a KKK member,

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and the Supreme Court thought about it 
and said, "You're right."

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Before we allow the government
to punish you for your speech,

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it has to pass such a high bar,

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there has to be an immediate 
and specific risk

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of actual physical violence
to a real person.

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And this KKK rally, well, 
it was a group of white racists,

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but there wasn't anyone around

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that they were intending
to actually engage in violence against.

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That case, in a vacuum,
might be tough to swallow.

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I think particularly
if you're a person of color.

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But it's not the end of the story.

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At about the same time,

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a lion of the Civil Rights Movement
named Charles Evers

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was giving a huge speech
to a gathering of NAACP supporters,

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who had come together to boycott
white-owned racist businesses

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that didn't allow black Americans
to come into their business.

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And as he's giving his speech,
Evers gets worked up and really passionate

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and he says, "I'll wring the damn neck
of anybody who breaks this boycott."

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So, what's he done, right?

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He's fantasized
about some future violence,

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it's hypothetical, 
he's not pointing at Bob there, right?

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So, the Brandenburg case
has just come out of the Supreme Court,

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and the NAACP's lawyers look at that
and they say, "Well, this can't be right.

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How can a KKK leader get 
a 'get out of jail' free card,

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but our Civil Rights guy, Mr. Evers,
is being sued for incitement

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by the same white-owned businesses
that he was protesting?"

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Mr. Evers challenged these charges too.

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And he went all the way up 
to the Supreme Court.

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And the Supreme Court said,

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"Well, I guess we're constrained
by that Brandenburg case

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to give you your free speech rights too."

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I want to be clear, by the way, 
that I don't see anything equivalent

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between the KKK and the NAACP.

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But the court is an odd place -

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it's a bit stripped of context in history,
it's a kind of bastion of privilege -

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and all they boiled it down to was,

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"Is this theoretical future violence?

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Or is there an immediate and specific
risk of harm to a real person?"

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And they said,

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"From that point of view,
these look the same."

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Now, I know a lot of people
are skeptical that in practice,

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the rights that are extended
to people like a KKK leader

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actually trickle down to somebody
like an NAACP leader.

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They're not wrong to be skeptical.

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Our country has always taken a while
to distribute its rights equally

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among its citizenry, right?

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Think of the right to vote.

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Did we all get it at the same time,
regardless of sex, regardless of race?

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Absolutely not.

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Or even in today's world,

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do you think your constitutional rights
at arrest look the same

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regardless of your race?

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Your right to carry a gun?

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Do you think that looks the same
whether you're black or you're white?

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Again, no.

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But is the answer to eliminate or lessen
the very constitutional protections

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that allow us to hold the government
accountable when it violates our rights?

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Hell no.

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Instead, making sure that constitutional
rights are evenly distributed

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is a process, right?

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And it's our job,
the First Amendment is no different.

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So, when the Supreme Court,
when the powers that be,

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give that right to somebody
like Brandenburg, a KKK leader,

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it's our job, Civil Rights leaders,
those who believe in equal rights,

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in justice, to ratchet everybody up
to that same level of protection

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for constitutional rights.

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And that's precisely what the NAACP did.

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And that's all of our job too.

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That's what I do,
as a free speech attorney,

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and that's what you 
need to do as students.

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You need to make sure
that these theoretical rules

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filter down on the ground.

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So are students up for it?

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That brings us to our third
and final myth.

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"Today's students are just snowflakes."

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I hear it all the time.

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Usually meant as an insult, by the way,
as beautiful as snowflakes are.

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So, because of the First Amendment,

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public schools and universities
can not ban people from campus,

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simply because their views are hateful.

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So that means that over the past year,

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black and Jewish students
have had to leave their dorm rooms

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and walk to class passing by people
who have called for their extermination.

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It means that women students
have had to walk by speakers on campus

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who call feminism a cancer.

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LGBT students have had
to walk by people saying,

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"Transgenderism is a medical disorder."

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No adult has to go to work

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and walk by people saying
they're less than human

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or that they shouldn't exist.

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I don't think students are snowflakes,
I think they're badasses.

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Because they bear the brunt
of that First Amendment on campus,

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where these professional
provocateurs come, right?

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Now, when I say that silencing
your political opponents isn't the answer,

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it's not because I think that's weak,
it's because I think that's unstrategic.

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So, if silencing your enemies
isn't an answer,

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what does empowerment look like
in the First Amendment?

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Well sometimes, it's just sheer numbers.

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The week after Charlottesville,
a group of people planned a rally

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on Boston Common that they termed
"The Free Speech Rally."

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They were alt-right folks,
and this is a week after Charlottesville.

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Only a handful
of permit-holders showed up.

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But 40,000+ members
of the Massachusetts community

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and from across the country,
engaged in a counter protest

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ringing Boston Common,
standing strong, right?

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Sending a very powerful
message of resistance together.

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That's a blizzard of snowflakes, right?

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There's no weakness in that.

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But sometimes, just a single person
will make a difference.

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One of my favorite stories 
from the last couple of years,

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one of my favorite free speech victories
from the last few years,

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is a musician who was really appalled 
that the KKK was planning to march

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in his hometown of Charleston.

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And so, using the tools at his disposal,
he got out his sousaphone.

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That's one of these big
brass instruments, BOM-BOM.

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And he got out of the street
and he got next to the KKK,

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and he just oompa, oompa,
oompa, oompa-ed along with them.

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(Laughter)

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It's amazing, you should look up 
the video, it's worth watching.

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And without saying a single word,
he stripped these fascists bare.

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They couldn't even bear to go on
marching, they were so humiliated.

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You can't keep up
a straight face of fascism

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with a goofy tuba lined behind you,
it's just hard to do.

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So look, I believe in the First Amendment
fundamentally, first and foremost

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because I know 
it's the greatest tool we have

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to keep the government
out of regulating the conversations

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that spark every change in the world.

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If you want to keep having conversations
that change the world,

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you should embrace 
this First Amendment too,

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messiness and all.

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And even though those three myths
might not be true,

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I hope they started to reveal 
a few real nuggets of truth

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about how we can strategically exercise
our powerful First Amendment rights.

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Number one: Know your history.

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Know that when rights are extended
to the powerful and privileged,

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that it's our job to make sure 
that everybody benefits from those rights.

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Understand that the same First Amendment
that first extended to a KKK member

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was used strategically
by Civil Rights leaders

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to cover the NAACP leader as well.

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That's a success story
and we have to keep doing it.

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Number two: Don't try to silence
your way out of a debate.

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As we've seen from Free Speech Week,
as we've seen from the Free Speech Rally,

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people trying to co-op
the term Free Speech

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just feeds them power.

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We can't let them do that.

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Free Speech as a concept,
its power is in its indivisibility,

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its equal for the KKK leader
and the NAACP leader alike, right?

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So don't dance to that tune.

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You don't have to give
the provocateur the censorship

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she's desperately hoping
that you give her.

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So that brings us to number three.

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Dance to your own tune.

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Figure out for yourself 
when you go to a counter protest,

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in numbers or alone with your tuba.

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Figure out when you hold an alternative
and more loving event across campus.

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Figure out when you think there are ideas

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that are just fundamentally
unworthy of debate.

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And the way that you figure out
how to handle these conflicts,

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how to handle speech that you abhor,
can be a great guideline

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for how you handle conflict
throughout the rest of your life.

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My name is Lee Rowland.

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I'm an unabashed progressive,
I'm a skeptic, I'm an anti-authoritarian.

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For all of those reasons,

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I believe in a robust
and indivisible First Amendment.

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Join me.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)