We are reaching the point where people who are on the “wrong” side of any issue progressives are interested in aren’t allowed to speak on a college campus. That’s true even if the proposed talk has nothing to do with the progressive issue. “Disagree with us and we don’t want to hear from you ever again” is the petulant stance.

In today’s Martin Center article, New York University student Anthony DiMauro writes about his school’s treatment of professor Elizabeth Loftus, an expert on psychology. She had been invited by NYU’s psychology department to give a talk. But after Loftus testified for the defense in the Harvey Weinstein trial, NYU abruptly pulled the plug on her trip to New York.

NYU vaguely told Loftus that her talk had to be canceled due to circumstances beyond its control. DiMauro writes:

. . . it seems entirely plausible that the haphazard cancellation had something to do with Loftus’ role as an expert witness. The notice Loftus received conveniently fell on the same day the Los Angeles Times published its article. What’s more, the issue with budgeting seems unlikely, as they already paid for her travel. If it were a venue or administrative issue, it seems it would have been simple to come clean about it.

This incident is very similar, DiMauro notes, to the way Harvard treated law school professor Ronald Sullivan last year after it came to light that he was assisting in Weinstein’s defense, when his time-limited appointment as a dean of faculty was not renewed in 2019 (though he remained a professor at Harvard).

DiMauro rightly concludes that progressives are so fixated on punishing the people they hate that free speech and due process of law must be sundered.