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- By Neely Bardwell
On this past weekend’s edition of Native Bidaské, Managing Editor, Valerie Vande Panne, and Publisher, Levi Rickert, welcomed Jared Nally, former editor of The Indian Leader, to discuss how a recent Supreme Court ruling impacta freedom of speech and student rights remedies at Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs).
Nally was a recipient of the 2021 Elias Boudinot Free Press Award for a lawsuit with Haskell Indian Nations University. The lawsuit was against the Haskell Indian Nations University then-president, Ronald Graham.
“When we talk about first amendment rights, it's the right to dissent. Nobody is really going to challenge speech that they find agreeable or like hearing,” says Nally. “So the first amendment is the right to have disagreeable speech. I think that is really important in Indian Country when some of our voices aren't what Congress wants to hear or does not benefit colonial capitalism to have our voices heard.”
Watch the full interview here.
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