What Kevin Williamson and Judith Shulevitz are writing about should be called “inoffensiveness clauses,” or “social-convention clauses,” rather than“morality clauses,” since they (based on Shulevitz’s story) encode no moral rule other than avoiding social-media opprobrium.“Morality clauses” in contracts from their inception have long included both moral rules and general instructions to maintain propriety and respectability. But the misnaming is especially striking if the current version is, as it seems to be, purely and openly about p.r.

Ramesh Ponnuru is a senior editor for National Review , a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute. @rameshponnuru