In this country you have the right to be a bigot, and everyone else has the right to criticize you for it.

University of Oklahoma President David Boren has expelled two students, members of SAE fraternity, for participating in a racist rant on a bus. The rant included the following:

There will never be a nigger at SAE

There will never be a nigger at SAE

You can hang him from a tree

But he’ll never sign with me

There will never be a nigger at SAE

Needless to say, such language is abhorrent. But the University of Oklahoma cannot constitutionally expel the students for this expression.

The Supreme Court has made it quite clear that public universities cannot constitutionally discipline their students for speech merely because it offends the university’s sense of decency.

In Healy v. James, for example, a state college in 1969 refused recognition to a proposed student chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The college argued that its denial of recognition was justified because SDS adhered to “a philosophy of violence and disruption.” This was especially worrisome, the college explained, at a time of widespread disruption on college campuses, often accompanied by trespass, vandalism, and arson.

More: Racist Rants and the University of Oklahoma: Getting It Wrong