Protest language revisited at panel

The idea of freedom of speech presupposes a word is just a word; unless the word spoken is "fuck" during an anti-war protest on a college campus. \nOften recognized as the turbulent time in post-modern American, the mid-1960s through the early '70s are credited with birthing several challenges to the perceived American dream of equality and the Western ideal of individual prosperity on university campuses across the nation. No stranger to peaceful confrontation, thousands of Hoosier student anti-war activists protested the escalation of the Vietnam War on the IU campus. \nAmong the 1,500 democratic revelers congregated on or near the Bryan Hall steps on May 13, 1970 to protest U.S. military bombing strikes in Cambodia, then-student Greg Hess was arrested by Monroe County Sheriff Clifford Thrasher for screaming: "We'll take the fucking street later (or again)," according to the Hess v. Indiana diorama exhibit displayed in the IU School of Law lobby. \nKeeping the dream of political activism alive in the 21st century, about a hundred students, faculty and guests gathered for a reflective panel discussion on Hess v. Indiana, a 1973 Supreme Court decision clarifying acceptable protest vocabularies, Friday afternoon in the law school's Moot Court Room. \nInitially charged with disturbing the peace, Hess v. Indiana articulated for law enforcement, government officials and members of the legal system when "incitement to illegal action" is protected by the First Amendment, guaranteeing American citizens the right and freedom of expression. Hess said he deployed the word "fuck" as a motivation tool to encourage other people to continue the demonstration since the protest was being broken up by the police.\n"I'm not sure, to be honest with you," Hess said. "I thought the version offered in court was much tamer than I remember. There was a lot of loud speech going on; (the other protesters) didn't have the sheriff standing behind them."\nAfter facing conviction in Bloomington City and Superior Courts, the Indiana Supreme Court denied Law School professors Tom Schornhost and Pat Baude appeal for Hess, according to the Law School's Hess v. Indiana display. After three years of a "paper case," the United States Supreme Court sided with Hess 6-3.\nIn addition to Schornhost and Baude, the panel discussion included Circuit Court Judge Randy Bridges and Bloomington attorney Tom Berry -- who worked as prosecutors to convict Hess in 1970.\nBesides Hess v. Indiana, the panel discussed various topics pertinent to students 1st Amendment rights during the nation's current war against terrorism -- such as the Patriot Act's perceived violation of American citizen rights and freedoms. The panel also voiced opinion on the issue of perceptual discrepancies by witnesses inherent in word-of-mouth legal cases. \nBaude said the Red Squad mentality of the 1950s Joseph McCarthy anti-communist era has been reinstated under the banner of "anti-terrorism forces."\n"We are practicing methods of surveillance we haven't seen in 40 years," Baude said.\nAddressing a handful of audience questions, the panel discussed their perception of the future of student protest within a suppressed, repressed and censored American political atmosphere.\nRegardless of whether future student protests revolve around a genuine desire for world peace or the opportunity to smoke weed while dancing naked in a grass field, one audience member asked what would happen, hypothetically speaking, if he wore a jacket saying "FUCK THE DRAFT" into a courtroom in the post-9-11 days?\nSimilar to Hess's motivation on May 13, 1970, the panel responded by reframing freedom of speech as one's duty to protest versus one's feeling of protest.\n-- Contact staff writer David A. Nosko at dnosko@indiana.edu.