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Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel and vice president of U.S. Advocacy Administration at Alliance Defending Freedom, appeared at Georgetown to discuss his work in defense of free speech in high-profile legal cases like Masterpiece Cake Shop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission and Reed v. Town of Gilbert.
The event was sponsored by Georgetown University Lecture Fund, Georgetown University College Republicans, Georgetown Right to Life, and The Free Speech Project.
Tedesco’s organization, the Alliance Defending Freedom, has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. But Tedesco feels the SPLC has “lost their way.” Although Tedesco lauds the SPLC’s historical mission in combatting racism and fighting the KKK, he now feels the organization uses labels like “hate group” to destroy groups with differing political beliefs.
Tedesco feels that even people with subversive, unpopular, and minority opinions have a right to express themselves – and the right to refrain from expressing more mainstream views.
According to Tedesco, “Government cannot prohibit people from speaking because it disapproves of the message.”
Commenting on Masterpiece Cake Shop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the case in which Tedesco’s client refused to bake a cake celebrating the marriage of a same-sex couple, Tedesco described government-coerced speech as a risky and unconstitutional practice.
He says, “The precedent that forces the [content] creator to violate their conscience will force you to violate yours.”
Tedesco portrayed attacks on free speech – whether by the government or by organizations monitoring social behavior – as uniformly dangerous. Tedesco explains, “Silencing opponents may give the appearance of unity, but it’s only an appearance. What it actually does is cultivate deep animosity and destroy the intellectual and cultural diversity that we’ve always cherished in this country.”
