Renowned civil-rights lawyer Alan Dershowitz said universities across the nation are shutting down the rights of students to participate in active intellectual debate, Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax TV.

And the renowned civil-rights leader zeroed in on one top New York University administrator for what he called "justifying censorship."

"We're seeing not only the shutting down of intellectual discourse; we're seeing the provost of New York University, writing an op-ed to The New York Times justifying censorship on college campuses," Dershowitz told J.D. Hayworth on Thursday.

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Ulrich Baer an NYU vice provost for faculty, arts, humanities and diversity, wrote Monday in the Times:

"Universities invite speakers not chiefly to present otherwise unavailable discoveries, but to present to the public views they have presented elsewhere.

"When those views invalidate the humanity of some people, they restrict speech as a public good. In such cases, there is no inherent value to be gained from debating them in public."

Dershowitz said: "It's preposterous that the provost of the university, of a major American university would be an advocate for censorship of free speech. We're seeing this kind of censorial attitude become mainstream."

Last week, University of California, Berkeley officials canceled a speaking appearance by conservative pundit Ann Coulter out of "grave concern" it would lead to violence on campus.

After protests, the university reversed itself and proposed an alternate date. But Coulter rejected the offer and pulled the plug for good.

Dershowitz, a retired Harvard Law professor, said there must be more uproar when schools attempt to put the kibosh on the First Amendment.

"When was the last time you saw the American Civil Liberties Union stand up for free speech on college campuses? They are missing in action," Dershowitz told Hayworth.

"The American Civil Liberties Union, which used to be at the forefront of defending free speech, has now taken a backseat. In fact, some of its affiliates in California supported the right of people to shut down speakers.

"We can no longer count on the ACLU. We can no longer count on all college administrators. We have to count on people of good sense on college campuses to try to restore a situation where we can hear conservative points of views as well as liberal points of view."

He added there is "something very, very wrong with many, many American college campuses today."

"The heroes are the students, the conservative students, the pro-Israel students, the students who stand up for free speech rather than the administrators, and the faculty who are prepared to go along with this censorship, other than some schools like the University of Chicago that have fought back," he said.

Dershowitz is the author of "Abraham: The World's First (But Certainly Not Last) Jewish Lawyer," "The Case for Israel" and "Electile Dysfunction: A Guide for Unaroused Voters."