San Francisco attorney Harmeet Dhillon (right), who represents the Berkeley College Republicans, speaks at a press conference on Monday, April 24, 2017, about a lawsuit filed by the group against the University of California. The student group that invited Ann Coulter to speak on campus says the university is discriminating against conservative speakers and violating students’ rights to free speech. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)Student groups have filed a lawsuit against the University of California at Berkeley, saying school officials violated their right to free speech when they canceled a talk by a controversial speaker last week over security concerns. Berkeley has become a flash point in the national debate over free speech, with clashes between the far left and the far right flaring into violence this year. The prestigious public university, where the campus free speech movement was born decades ago, has in recent months become a magnet for protesters and masked agitators who have fought, set fires and tossed explosives.

Source: Washington Post April 25, 2017 00:56 UTC