- Volume 76, Symposium Issue
- Page 1813
Symposium 2024 - Speech at Twenty-First Century Schools and Universities
Defending the Public Quad
Doxxing, Campus Speech Policies, and the First Amendment
David Cremins *
This Essay explores how universities bound by the First Amendment can constitutionally proscribe doxxing—the malicious publication of personally identifying information. As campus controversies have fueled targeted harassment campaigns against students, staff, and faculty, responses from university administrators have been limited. To defend members of their educational community from threats to their safety, well-being, and reputation, schools should follow the lead of states experimenting with prohibitions on doxxing. Doing so, however, will require carefully working through various legal and practical problems, which this Essay surveys and offers initial responses to, in an effort to outline how the “public quads” of the United States may remain spaces for robust inquiry and free expression.