Colleges Should Pay Heed to Oberlin’s Costly Libel Case
Universities have to be extremely careful about how they interact with student causes if they want to avoid being held liable for protesters’ words and actions.
Some speech can have costly consequences.
Photographer: Ryan McBride/AFP/Getty Images
If colleges still thought there was little risk in taking up their students’ causes, they should reconsider in light of what has happened to Oberlin College. An Ohio appeals court has upheld $30 million-plus in damages in a lawsuit against the school brought by a local bakery that was accused of a history of racial profiling.
The case has gotten lots of attention as a touchstone in the culture wars and because of the free expression issues surrounding it. Although the case could still be appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court — and even conceivably to the U.S. Supreme Court — it is now possible to derive some hardheaded lessons from the process thus far. For one thing, universities need to be extremely careful about how they interact with student protests if they want to avoid being held liable for their students’ words and actions.