Representative Val Demings, a black Democrat from Florida, set the tone in her opening remarks. She spoke of attending college at a time when there were some who did not want her there, declared a willingness to risk her life to protect the rights of a Ku Klux Klansman to speak, and insisted that a line is crossed when white supremacists invoke free speech as a cover to threaten or harass minority students.

As she put it:

I've taken three oaths in my lifetime: one as a young police officer in 1984, another when I was sworn in as the police chief, and a third when I was sworn in to serve in the 105th session of the U.S. House of Representatives. In each oath I swore that I would protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. I have taken each oath very seriously. As a law enforcement officer I had several occasions to provide security for groups as they exercised their first amendment rights, groups like the Klu Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi movement. There I was providing much needed protection, and if someone or anyone had tried to harm them in any way I would have risked my life to protect them, not because I agreed with their speech, but because I agreed with their right to speak, their right as guaranteed by the First Amendment. I appreciate this opportunity to shine a light on the real clear and present danger facing colleges and universities around the nation. The problem is not high profile speakers like Ann Coulter. The clear and present danger is the increase in white supremacist hate groups on campuses, the targeting and harassment of students because of their race, religion, gender, and sexual identity. For the 2016 and 2017 school year the Anti-Defamation League reported that students, faculty, and staff on 110 American college campuses were confronted by 159 separate incidents of racist fliers and stickers. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that in 10 days alone after the last election there were 140 incidents of hate bias attacks on university campuses––most recently on May 1 of this year, at American University, bananas tied with nooses were hung across the campus after the school elected its first African American student government president, Taylor Dumpson, who I understand is with us today. Now I was proud Taylor was elected because it demonstrated much needed progress as a nation. But words were written on the bananas referring to the African American sorority of which Taylor was a member. Taylor was also subjected to a cyberbullying campaign by a white supremacist group on social media. The FBI is investigating these unprotected, illegal expressions of speech that Taylor was subjected to as a hate crime. The operative word here is crime. As Taylor explained, "I applied to college like all of our children do. When I applied I thought that I would meet new people and learn new things, not be the victim of a racially motivated hate crime and cyberbullying that would interrupt my academic life and disrupt my mental, physical, and emotional health." As stated earlier, what happened in Taylor's case is being investigated by the FBI. Mr. Chairman, public safety trumps everything. For students like Taylor, the issue of free speech on college campuses isn't a right or left issue. Rather it's about criminal acts being wrapped in banners of free speech. It is knowing that the symbols and banners of 400 years of torture and terror are enough to strike fear in the hearts of every student of color. As we examine the issue of free speech on college campuses, let’s keep the focus on addressing the real danger which are any acts of violence, to threaten, intimidate, harass, or violate any laws that this nation holds quite dear.

How does one determine the difference between protected speech and criminal harassment or threats? The longtime free-speech advocate Nadine Strossen agreed that a noose menacingly directed at an African American student qualified. She explained:

We hear too many statements about so-called hate speech, which by the way, is not a legal term of art, it has no accepted definition, though it is generally used to describe speech that conveys hatred on the basis of some personal characteristic that has traditionally been the basis for discrimination: race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation, among others. We hear constantly statements that "hate speech is not free speech." Absolutely wrong. But we also hear equally incorrect statements that "hate speech is absolutely protected." Also wrong. The genius of our Supreme Court decisions on this issue––here the court has been very unified from right to left, setting a model that we should all emulate in the rest of the world, this is not a partisan or ideological issue––they have laid down two core free speech principles... And I think they are brilliant and make great common sense, including in this context. For one, speech may never be censored just because we revile its ideas. That's called viewpoint neutrality. Number two picks up on points that Ms. Demings in particular made. If the speech does contain what is often called a “clear and present danger” of harm, including instilling a reasonable fear that you will be attacked––the incident of the nooses––that constitutes targeted harassment and threats, which may and should be punished consistent with existing free speech principles. If people understood both the common sense distinction our law draws between protecting ideas that we hate versus not protecting, but strongly punishing speech that actually directly causes imminent, serious harm, there would be much more support for it.

A representative of the Anti-Defamation League, Frederick Lawrence, offered that one test ought to be, “Is the intent to communicate, no matter how hateful, the idea, or to intimidate the victim?" As he sees it, “Robust free expression and free inquiry are central to the missions of our colleges. The limits to such expression are way out on the margins of expressive activity, and they involve behavior that threatens or instills fear in a victim or victims. Hate speech is protected. Hate crimes are not.”