Several student groups at UC Berkeley Law School have signed on to a pledge not to invite any speakers—speaking on any subject—if those speakers "have expressed and continued to hold views … in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine." Berkeley Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, a noted liberal constitutional scholar, has condemned that position, but also argued,
I followed this up with a message to the entire Law School community: "The First Amendment does not allow us to exclude any viewpoints and I believe that it is crucial that universities be places where all ideas can be voiced and discussed. In addition, the Law School has an 'all-comers' policy, which means that every student group must allow any student to join and all student group organized events must be open to all students." …
[N]o group has violated the Law School's policy and excluded a speaker on account of being Jewish or holding particular views about Israel. Such conduct, of course, would be subject to sanctions.
When I delved further into this, though, I came to the conclusion that the law school does not already forbid such "exclu[sions] of speakers on account of … holding particular views about Israel"; I've confirmed with Dean Chemerinsky that categorically excluding speakers based on their views on Israel—even when the event has nothing to do with Israel—wouldn't be punished under any current rules.
