by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic

About the authors: Richard Delgado is the Jean Lindsley Professor of Law at the University of Colorado. Jean Stefancic is a research associate at the University of Colorado School of Law.

The First Amendment appears to stand as a formidable barrier to campus rules prohibiting group-disparaging speech. Designed to assure that debate on public issues is "uninhibited, robust, and wide open," the First Amendment protects speech that we hate as much as that which we hold dear. Yet racial insults implicate powerful social interests in equality and equal personhood. When uttered on university campuses, racial insults bring into play additional concerns. Few would question that the university has strong, legitimate interests in teaching students and teachers to treat each other respectfully; protecting minoritygroup students from harassment; and protecting diversity, which could...