Only two days before Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro’s speech at the University of Pittsburgh, the university told conservative students that they would have to pay a $5,546.52 security fee or the lecture would be canceled. The speech is part of Shapiro’s college campus lecture tour sponsored by Young America’s Foundation (YAF).
When university administrators were queried why the fee was so expensive, they replied that their security analysis was based on the possibility of “controversy” and “protests.” Young America’s Foundation spokesman Spencer Brown noted that both of those factors are viewpoint-discriminatory and illegal considerations.
YAF responded on Tuesday afternoon, informing the University of Pittsburgh that YAF would file suit against the university if the university did not immediately rescind the fee. YAF also said it would pay the fee, but under protest.
Brown asserted, “We continue to see more universities use security fees to burden student expression. When universities impose exorbitant security fees because administrators subjectively determine that a speaker is controversial or that certain members of the community will protest, they are employing a heckler’s veto. This gives protestors the ability to determine who has free speech on campus and which viewpoints may be expressed. YAF’s lecture with Ben Shapiro is scheduled for Wednesday night so we should know very soon whether the University wants to defend its viewpoint-discriminatory actions in court, or whether it will do the right thing and rescind this outrageous fee.”
YAF’s email to University of Pittsburgh administrators read:
Dear Ms. Chornick,
I want to thank you for your work on tomorrow’s campus lecture featuring Ben Shapiro. Young America’s Foundation (YAF) is looking forward to tomorrow’s lecture and appreciates the University of Pittsburgh’s commitment to free speech.
It is my understanding that yesterday—two days before the Shapiro lecture—Commander Holler informed the University of Pittsburgh College Republicans that the University is imposing a $5,546.52 security fee for tomorrow’s lecture. It is also my understanding that unless Young America’s Foundation, in writing, agrees to pay this expense, your office will not allow tomorrow’s lecture to happen.
Young America’s Foundation will pay the $5,546.52 security fee for tomorrow’s campus lecture featuring YAF’s speaker, Ben Shapiro. However, please note that our promise to pay this fee is in protest. We believe that the University of Pittsburgh’s security fee policy is deeply flawed—containing serious constitutional defects—and that because of these defects, the resulting $5,546.52 security fee is viewpoint discriminatory.
We have retained a law firm, Alliance Defending Freedom, to represent us in this matter. We intend to explore all legal remedies including litigation.
We look forward to working with your office to resolve this matter.
Best regards,
Mark Trammell, Esq.
Associate General Counsel
Young America’s Foundation
Shapiro’s lectures have been targeted by universities or student groups on campuses before, including the University of Southern California, UCLA, the University of Minnesota, St. Olaf College, the University of California, Merced, the University of Connecticut, Concordia College, Tufts University, the University of California, Berkeley, Northwestern University, DePaul University, and California State University, Los Angeles.
Even the president of the University of California system and the former Secretary of Homeland Security under Barack Obama, Janet Napolitano, took a shot at Shapiro after the University of California, Berkeley, spent $600,000 on security when Shapiro spoke there in 2017: