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Legal expert warns most inflammatory speech is protected; OCR staffing cuts hamper investigations
Summary
Legal scholar David Cole told a House committee that most inflammatory or offensive speech is constitutionally protected and that Title VI liability requires targeted harassment or conduct so severe and pervasive it denies equal access to education.
David Cole, the George J. Mitchell Professor in Law and Public Policy at Georgetown University Law Center, told the House Education and Labor Committee that U.S. constitutional law protects offensive or hateful speech in most circumstances and that federal civil-rights law (Title VI) reaches only certain forms of harassment that deny an individual equal access to educational opportunities.
Cole outlined two narrow Title VI circumstances in which speech can lead to liability: 1) harassment targeted at an…
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