Judge orders Wyoming campus to provide pulpit for ’60s radical

A federal judge has ruled the University of Wyoming must provide a forum and adequate security for '60s radical Bill Ayers to speak tonight on campus.

While Ayers should be free to speak, should the taxpayers be forced to pay for it?

Federal Judge William Downes on Tuesday did a mind reading act and determined the reason the university bosses had banned Ayers from campus was due to his controversial past and not legitimate fear of violence. It did not help that the Laramie police chief testified that the university never advised him of any threats surrounding a planned Ayers appearance.

The Casper Star-Tribune pointed out an interesting juxtaposition in the case. While Ayers' Weather Underground was protesting the Vietnam War by blowing up military and police buildings, Judge Downes was a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. The paper quoted Downes as saying, "This court is of age to remember the Weather Underground. When his group was bombing the U.S. Capitol in 1971, I was serving in the uniform of my country. Even to this day, when I hear that name, I can scarcely swallow the bile of my contempt for it. But Mr. Ayers is a citizen of the United States who wishes to speak, and he need not offer any more justification than that."

That's principle we all should respect, even if we still quibble over the taxpayer funding.

Let's hope the appearance goes off without a hitch and Ayers' speech proves what he has always been — a spoiled rich kid who got away with murder on a technicality and went on to bamboozle leftist academics with this efforts to infiltrate the public education system with his collectivist, socialist propaganda. In a fair fight of free speech, truth eventually should prevail.

Hear David Horowitz discuss this matter before the ruling: