Legal Question in Criminal Law in New York

Re: Any chance for my niece to pursue another school?

The freedoms enumerated in the constitution are freedoms from government intrusion or violation. A private institution or entity is entitled to conduct itself as it sees fit. If your niece make a statement that offended the sensabilities of the institution they are entitiled to act as they see fit as long as the do not discriminate in their actions.

Joel R. Salinger, Esq.

Re: Any chance for my niece to pursue another school?

Not a criminal law question, but interesting nonetheless. To answer: it depends what she said, and where she said it. Freedom of speech is not unlimited. You can't yell fire in a moviehouse, etc. etc. If what she said could be deemed hate speech ("Hitler is a great man who did a lot of good") then that would be different than a discussion wherein she acted as devil's advocate ("Hitler's actions were all sanctioned by German law.") Also, it depends, I think, on whether the university was public or private, but I may be wrong about that.

In any event it seems odd that they would kick her out, since law school is supposed to encourage students to advocate difficult positions. The "Hitler advocate" scenario is often a popular method to encourage debate, etc.

But, universities these days are not very tolerant places, despite waiving the banner of tolerance from every tower. Academia is very paranoid, and often quite opposed to divergent opinions, imho, and some of that paranoia manifests itself in rules that might allow them to kick out your niece.