Last week was a sad time for college presidents, lawyers who advised them and taxpayers who will now have to front the bill for the possible congressional investigations that have now been called for regarding claims of antisemitism at several universities around the country.

The First Amendment and the principles of academic freedom encourage higher education institutions to safeguard all protected speech, even when that speech is offensive. First Amendment protections extend to ideas that are intellectually indefensible and to speech that is morally questionable. I think we all support robust protection for freedom of speech. At the same time, we should appreciate that words can inflict pain and suffering upon the innocent and can even threaten the physical safety of targeted persons and groups. Today, the struggle against hate speech extends to the new and emerging forms that such speech has taken, such as seen on extremist websites and cyber-bullying.