Noah Feldman, Columnist

Richard Spencer Has Only Himself to Blame for Hecklers

The government and the University of Florida did all they could to protect his free speech. The white supremacist invited in the protesters.

October 19, 2017 at 8:40 PM UTC

By Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

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It was Richard Spencer’s party, and he can cry if he wants to. But the hecklers who shouted down the white supremacist Thursday at his University of Florida speech were invited guests, not government crashers. They held tickets distributed by Spencer’s own National Policy Institute. So they didn’t violate Spencer’s free speech rights by drowning him out with chants telling him to go home.

Only the government is obligated to respect free speech rights -- and the university and law enforcement did everything by the book, to protect Spencer’s safety and preserve law and order outside the venue.