Public universities are supposed to be places where students can freely exchange ideas. A lecture or a debate can challenge people to think, particularly when the ideas involved are controversial or unpopular. The First Amendment guarantees that students at public colleges can peacefully share their beliefs, and it forbids government officials from silencing speech simply because they, or others on campus, disagree with it.
But in November 2019, officials at the State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY Binghamton) did the opposite. When a conservative student group invited world-renowned economist Dr. Art Laffer to speak on campus, a mob assembled to shut the event down. Rather than protect the speaker and the students who came to hear him, university police and administrators cleared the way for the disruption and then removed the speaker instead of the mob.
By siding with a hostile crowd instead of safeguarding the students’ rights, the university engaged in a heckler’s veto, viewpoint-based censorship that the Constitution forbids.
What is Young America’s Foundation?
Young America’s Foundation (YAF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on conservative ideas including individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values. YAF hosts conferences, seminars, and speakers to teach people about these ideas.
YAF often partners with student organizations that share its values to co-host speakers on campuses across the country. These events help further YAF’s broad mission of informing and educating the public.
The mob attacks event organizers
In November 2019, YAF and College Republicans at SUNY Binghamton planned to co-host a lecture by Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and world-renowned economist Dr. Art Laffer. A few days before the lecture was to take place, members of College Republicans set up a table on campus to advertise the event.
After about three hours, a mob of students from the College Progressives confronted the College Republicans about Dr. Laffer’s upcoming lecture. They also sent messages to group chatrooms claiming that College Republicans was advocating “racism, homophobia, and xenophobia” and encouraged others to come “disrupt” the table where members of the College Republicans were peacefully advertising their event.
A mob of about 200 people soon attacked the College Republicans’ table, destroyed flyers and posters advertising the event, broke down and stole the table, and screamed obscenities at members of College Republicans. The mob even physically assaulted one member and yanked away her “Make America Great Again” hat.
When university police arrived, they did not stop the verbal and physical harassment by members of the College Progressives. Instead, they forced College Republicans to leave the area as College Progressives members chanted, “Pack it up!”
After the attack, the SUNY Binghamton vice president of student affairs blamed members of the College Republicans instead of decrying the harassment by the College Progressives, and the university president issued a statement supporting the university police’s actions.
The mob shouts down Dr. Art Laffer
Despite this incident, YAF took steps to ensure that the lecture by Dr. Laffer that they were co-hosting with the College Republicans went on as planned. YAF hired two agents from a private security firm to protect Dr. Laffer, and the group’s general counsel contacted SUNY Binghamton’s campus attorney to ensure the university would take the necessary actions to allow the event to proceed. He asked the university to pledge that if protesters entered the lecture room, university police would remove them and not Dr. Laffer. But the university refused to promise this basic protection.
At a meeting on the day of the event, university police told YAF and the College Republicans that they were moving the event to a different lecture hall so they could easily remove Dr. Laffer if they chose to. In addition, university police announced that they would facilitate the College Progressives’ efforts to disrupt the event by giving them the lecture hall right next to the one where Dr. Laffer was going to speak. The two lecture halls even had connecting doors. College Republicans strongly objected to both of these conditions, but university police refused to budge.
About an hour before the event began, hundreds of College Progressives members and their co-conspirators lined up outside the lecture hall. When the doors opened, they stormed into the room and blocked others from taking open seats. Many of them were wearing masks to conceal their identities, which directly violates New York law.
University police made one announcement about the fire code and asked everyone to sit down at the request of the College Republicans and YAF, but the mob refused to listen. Even though university police had 43 sworn law enforcement officers on the force, they failed to take any further action.
Just seconds after Dr. Laffer started speaking, a member of the mob began shouting him down and hurling verbal attacks at him. The disrupting student was handed a megaphone and urged to continue, and when university police finally tried to remove him after nearly two minutes of shouting, members of the mob formed a barrier around him.
After more protesters flooded into the room, university police told the two private security agents to remove Dr. Laffer from the lecture hall. Since their job was to protect Dr. Laffer, they complied and eventually escorted him to his car to leave the campus.
Taking a stand for free speech
The First Amendment protects people of all beliefs, and it ensures both YAF members and Dr. Laffer the right to peacefully share their beliefs without fear of being physically assaulted or relentlessly antagonized. By encouraging and aiding the hostile mob seeking to silence Dr. Laffer, SUNY Binghamton’s president, vice president of student affairs, and university police all failed to properly protect Dr. Laffer and his rights.
ADF filed a lawsuit against the university officials who assisted in shutting down free speech instead of removing the mob that was disrupting the lecture.
After several court orders and a jury trial, the legal claims against university police and officials have been dismissed. ADF has appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
What’s at stake?
Even though SUNY Binghamton knew in advance that disruptions were planned during Dr. Art Laffer’s speech, it did nothing to stop them. In fact, it actively facilitated the planned disruptions by the College Progressives and their co-conspirators.
By removing Dr. Laffer instead of the disruptive mob, as was its plan from the beginning, the university violated the constitutional rights of YAF, the College Republicans, and Dr. Laffer himself. A ruling in favor of YAF and the College Republicans would ensure that public universities cannot pick and choose which students get to speak freely on campus.
The bottom line
Universities should encourage free speech, not shut it down. All students should be able to exercise their constitutionally protected freedom to peacefully share their views with others.
Young America’s Foundation v. Stenger
- November 2019: SUNY Binghamton officials facilitated the disruption of a speech by Dr. Art Laffer.
- June 2020: ADF filed a lawsuit against the SUNY Binghamton officials who shut down free speech.
- November 2023: YAF and the College Republicans filed an amended complaint focused on the university officials and the Student Association.
- March 2025: The court granted summary judgment to President Stenger and Vice President Rose and dismissed the claims for injunctive and declaratory relief, leaving claims against the university police chief and the Student Association.
- January 2026: The court dismissed the remaining claims against the Student Association, leaving First Amendment and equal protection claims against the police chief to go to trial.
- July 2026: After a trial, a jury returned a verdict in favor of the police chief, and the district court entered judgment against YAF and the College Republicans.
- August 2026: YAF and the College Republicans appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
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