Growing numbers of young adults, including law students at elite universities, claim that it is necessary and proper to shout down speakers who were invited to campus because their words are “violence.” For these people, it is not an option to engage with these speakers civilly, to challenge them with questions and comments. It’s not enough to refuse to attend a talk. They feel they are compelled to muzzle the speaker with the heckler’s veto so that no one else can hear the talk.

Zach Greenberg of FIRE explains that shout-downs clash with the principle of free speech. This is true even in the absence of government involvement (e.g., at a private university). Zach did a good job explaining the king of problem previously and he also does a good job here: