The Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy (JLPP) is a law review at Harvard Law School published by an independent student group. It was established in 1977 as a conservative and libertarian alternative to left-wing oriented publications on campus. It is the flagship law review for the Federalist Society, an organization for like-minded lawyers, students, and other interested persons. The Society has been influential in selection of Supreme Court justices and other federal judges.
The Federalist Society established the annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture Series “in Barbara’s memory because of her enormous contributions as an active member, supporter, and volunteer leader” 1
Bari Weiss gave the 22nd lecture in November 2023, titled “You Are the Last Line of Defense.” It is published in the Spring 2024, Volume 47, No. 2 of the JLPP. Ms. Weiss’ topic is defense of free speech, but also a condemnation of the toleration of anti-Semitism in academia and culture, especially in the legacy and social media, and elsewhere. Ms. Weiss does not seek to ban expression of contrary views; quite the opposite. Her concern is that when viewpoint expression segues into acts of violence and obstruction, particularly when those acts serve to intimidate and prevent expression of opposing viewpoints they must be resisted. She particularly faults the media, legacy and social, and even the current U. S. Government for pusillanimously failing to resist such intimidation. The people of the United Sates of America are the Last Line of Defense.
Bari Weiss is a journalist who has worked for the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and is now a contributor for the German Die Welt and a Substack newsletter “The Free Press” she founded, and has sought to “position herself as a reasonable liberal concerned that far-left critiques stifled free speech.” Ms. Weiss has defended free speech on campus and in the media. She resigned from the New York Times in 2020 in protest over the newspaper’s not defending her against alleged bullying by her colleagues and maintaining that Twitter [prior being purchased by Elon Musk in 2023] “has become [the NYT’s] ultimate editor.”
In her resignation letter Ms. Weiss explains: “As the ethics and mores of [Twitter had] become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history. Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing molded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative. My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views…”2
I commend reading the transcript of her lecture to every one interested. It can be found at the link below. One cannot do Ms. Weiss justice by attempting to paraphrase or summarize her speech. Nevertheless, the following quotation from it that expresses what it means to fight back as a line of defense.
“New York coffee shop owner Aaron Dahan had all of his baristas quit when he placed an Israeli flag in the window and began fundraising for Magen David Adom—the Israeli Red Cross.
“But his café didn’t close—quite the opposite. Suppliers sent him free shipments of beans and cups. Community members picked up shifts for free. There were lines around the block to buy a cup of coffee. The café made $25,000 in a single day.”3
What a great response from those who would not stand idle and cower in the face of such outrage!
Full disclosure: I am and have been a member of the Federalist Society since law school. The Israeli flag flies along with the U. S. flag in front of our home.
Footnotes
- Barbara Kay Olson was an American lawyer, conservative television commentator, and author. She was a prominent critic of the Clinton administration and wrote two books about Hillary Clinton. Olson was also a frequent guest on news programs and a co-founder of the Independent Women’s Forum. She died a as a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77 that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon during the September 11, 2001 Islamist terrorist attacks. Her husband Ted Olson, a founding member of the Federalist Society was Solicitor General in the Bush administration at the time of the attacks. ↩︎
- https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter ↩︎
- JLLP at https://fedsoc.org/commentary/fedsoc-blog/22nd-barbara-k-olson-memorial-lecture-by-Bari-Weiss ↩︎
