'Unlawful behavior': George Will slams Trump’s 'chest-thumping' and 'defiance of clear legal stricture'

Over the years, conservative Washington Post columnist George Will has never been shy about criticizing left-wing professors and activists on college campuses — often arguing that "freedom of expression" suffers when conservative and libertarian students are discouraged from speaking their minds. Academia, Will often says, should not be a "safe space" for the left, but rather, an environment in which the left and the right are encouraged to engage in vigorous debates.

But in his March 28 column, the 83-year-old Will is vehemently critical of the Trump Administration's attacks on Columbia University and other major colleges. President Donald Trump, the Never Trumper warns, isn't doing conservatism any favor by trying to bully and intimidate academia and threatening to withhold funding.

"The Trump Administration's coercion of Columbia University involved reciprocal misbehavior by the school and the government," Will emphasizes. "This and other threatened punishment is probably a harbinger of further unlawful behavior by a lawless government against teaching institutions that are slow learners. Columbia was dilatory and incompetent in dealing with demonstrations that disrupted education and created a hostile campus environment for a disfavored minority, Jews."

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Will adds, "Columbia deserved to pay a cost for this violation of existing laws and regulations. There are, however, other pertinent rules."

The conservative columnist believes the Trump Administration was out of line when it sent Columbia University a heavy-handed letter on March 13.

Will writes, "The (Trump) Administration's March 13 letter to Columbia ordered 'immediate compliance' with its demands for: expulsion of certain students and student groups, reform of admissions policies and disciplinary procedures, and government supervision ('receivership') of the Middle Eastern, South Asian and African studies department. But Keith E. Whittington, director of Yale Law School's Center for Academic Freedom and Free Speech, notes: 'Federal statutes require that the government demonstrate with a written report to Congress and after a full hearing that there has been a legal violation before an educational institution can have its funding cut off.'"

Trump and his allies, according to Will, fail to realize that in the future, a liberal presidential administration may use similar tactics against conservatives in academia.

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"The current administration's disregard of the law does not seem like carelessness," Will laments. "It seems to be a chest-thumping expression of the belief that respecting legal boundaries is for weaklings. Defiance of clear legal strictures…. indicates that some 'conservatives' are jealous that progressives have been having all the fun throwing the government's weight around. Be that as it may — and however much Columbia, Penn and many other institutions have forfeited the public's sympathy — government should not slice through the law to get at them."

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George Will's full Washington Post column is available at this link (subscription required).