Stanley Fish, the author of Free- Speech Follies, is a well renowned scholar, who has written many pieces about campus politics and academic careers. Fish has taught at some of the most elite colleges in the country, which include: Berkley, John Hopkins College, and Duke. For five years he was the dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Illinois University. At the age of seventy-five he joined the Cardoza Law School in New York City as a Floersheimer Visiting Professor. Some of the books he has written include: The Trouble with Principle, Save the World on Your Own Time and There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech… and It’s a Good Thing, Too.
Summary:
“In the academy, the case is even worse: Not only is the First Amendment pressed into service at the drop of a hat, it is invoked ritually when there are no First Amendment issues in sight” (2).
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Fish starts off by saying people will cry wolf whenever something does not go there way, but in this case they will call First Amendment. Fish uses the example of a newspaper on a college campus attacking a certain minority group in an article that they had published. When this first came out people were furious all over. However, when asked why they published this controversial article the editor responded with the newspaper has a voice and that they do not agree with this article in the first place. Fish then goes on to argue his point that everything the editor said was wrong, and then provides another example of where this happened. This time Fish argues that the First Amendment protects unpopular speeches or writings from having the government have its opinion. Fish explains that there is not an issue with the First Amendment, but rather than an issue with the editors not accepting the consequences of the