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Thank God the First Amendment isn’t on Prozac
A couple of weeks after The Washington Post sunk its teeth into the growing AutoAdmit “scandal,” which could only be called as much if you are a law student and your life is empty enough that petty trash talk dominates your existence, the Wall Street Journal jumped into the fray today, with its own op-ed written by current Yale Law Student Elizabeth Wurtzel (pictured), the author of Prozac Nation. Wurtzel rightfully denounces the shenanigans on AutoAdmit, then writes, “In such a world, what to do about AutoAdmit? To start with, pray for mercy, because based on the content of its postings, the future of jurisprudence does not look good,” which is probably the most apt line I’ve read about the scandal. Wurtzel then pleads for civility and asks for sensitivity, which is unlikely given the type of law student who leaves the offensive posts on the message boards.
Wurtzel also suggests that the offending posts should be removed, but reckons that it won’t happen:
Not because it shouldn’t — of course it should. But because once again, for about the 80th time in my memory and for at least the 80,000th time in the life of this country, here is an issue in which the right to free speech — as opposed to the need for everyone to just shut up — is going to overwhelm us all.
I actually found that bit somewhat disconcerting — the idea that we could be overwhelmed by the right to free speech. She continues in this vein, too, seemingly taking issue with the notion that “the firstness of the First Amendment trumps everything that competes with it.”
Actually, I kind of prefer it that way. And in an era in which our administration is slowly stripping away other rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, it’s nice to know that we can still say what we want to say (unless we’re Muslim), even if the White House is recording, reading, and monitoring it all.
After all, we have sacrificed six of the Ten Amendments in service of this war. Just ask Bill Maher:
