More On Civil Conduct During W&L Activities

April 26, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: I offer another suggestion on how to protect civil conduct during speaking events on W&L’s campus. This bookends my earlier paid letter titled “Broken Windows.” (Disclaimer: this is not intended as legal advice.)

Did you know that the First Amendment also recognizes the right to exclude persons or groups who disrupt or hijack private events? Anyone who attends a Taylor Swift concert or a Ladies PGA tournament must agree to such terms; this includes free tickets as well.

The U.S. Supreme Court established this right in 1995, (the Hurly case). A group wished to join a St. Patrick’s Day Parade, piggybacking the event to advance their own agenda. The parade sponsor refused to allow them to join. The SCOTUS upheld the sponsor’s ban on the outside group. Clearly, the First Amendment freedom of association carries a balancing right for event sponsors to exclude persons intent on violating their event theme or purpose.

Thus, a “free” ticket is a contract, a conditional easement, not just a gate pass. Perhaps W&L student organization sponsors should use contractual ticket terms to require civil discourse rules of conduct and punish economic loss of event value. Sponsoring student groups should enforce these rules without interference from the school. This would go a long way to prevent planned or individual disruption of events, which events often entail months of planning and costs topping $30,000 to bring national speakers to campus.

To all those Woke students, faculty and outside attendees planning event disruption, take note: when you order a ticket, you might just be agreeing to enforceable rules of conduct, carrying violation penalties far beyond mere ejection from the premises. So, as H.S. Thompson wrote: “Buy the ticket, take the ride.” JOHN E. LANE III Hardy