Virginia Tech’s Bias Response Team and the First Amendment

The advertising catchphrase “see something, say something” calls to mind suspicious packages that might be bombs. At Virginia Tech, that slogan applies to the school’s official Bias Intervention and Response Team, or BIRT. Hokies are encouraged to report one another’s ill-considered opinions or crass jokes. On May 31 the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to end this, but a dissent by veteran Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III is a persuasive signal flare for the Supreme Court to take the case and defend free speech.