Students at leading law schools recently learned a harsh lesson about the First Amendment: that while it brings freedom of speech, that speech doesn’t often come with protection against other speech and even actions regarding that speech. These law students came face to face with tremendous blowback in the aftermath of their apparent justification of the horrendous attacks by Hamas on hundreds of innocent Israelis and other civilians.

There were kneejerk reactions by many students and student groups, particularly at Harvard, where 34 student groups, including many at the law school, signed onto a letter from an undergraduate Palestinian rights organization at Harvard supporting the reprehensible attacks while solely blaming Israeli actions toward Palestinians for the massacre. After an initial muted reaction from the administration, the repercussions were significant. The signatories were denounced by students, alumni, potential employers and the public. The Harvard signatories and pro-Hamas protesters were “doxxed,” or publicly identified with contact information on the Internet and on a billboard truck further identifying the activists, while a handful of vocal alumni employers demanded their names so they can “make sure they never get hired” by their firms. At least eight of the organizations signing the letter have since backed away from their endorsement, some with apologies and some members of these campus groups claiming it was done without their knowledge.

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