Does a College Student Who Supports Child Molestation Have a 1st Amendment Right to Teach?

The University of Hawaii has prevailed before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in an unusual freedom of speech case. Mark Oyama had a bachelor's degree and master's degree when he took courses at UH to meet the academic requirements in its teacher certification program. In several courses, he wrote papers expressing support for child predation— the idea that a minor can consent to sexual activity with an adult. In a course paper he wrote: "Personally, I think that online child predation should be legal, and find it ridiculous that one could be arrested for comments they make on the Internet. I even think that real-life child predation should be legal….” Apart from these views, he also wrote that 9 in 10 students with disabilities were “fakers.” After his professors refused to endorse his certification, Oyama sued the university on grounds that its faculty infringed his First Amendment rights. The federal appeals court dismissed his lawsuit, reasoning that the university wasn’t censoring his thoughts but simply applying certification standards that were reasonably tailored to meet professional criteria. The opinion is here.