Bill Maher will not be banned from Berkeley, chancellor announces

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Sorry, student protesters! At least this time free speech is winning out.

The student group that selects graduation speakers at the University of California at Berkeley voted Tuesday night to rescind the invitation to Bill Maher to address graduates in December after a much publicized petition started circulating. But Berkeley’s chancellor, Nicholas B. Dirks, announced Wednesday that he would not let that vote overrule the decision to bring Maher to campus.

“The UC Berkeley administration cannot and will not accept this decision, which appears to have been based solely on Mr. Maher’s opinions and beliefs, which he conveyed through constitutionally protected speech,” said a statement from the university.

“For that reason Chancellor Dirks has decided that the invitation will stand, and he looks forward to welcoming Mr. Maher to the Berkeley campus. It should be noted that this decision does not constitute an endorsement of any of Mr. Maher’s prior statements: indeed, the administration’s position on Mr. Maher’s opinions and perspectives is irrelevant in this context, since we fully respect and support his right to express them. More broadly, this university has not in the past and will not in the future shy away from hosting speakers who some deem provocative.”

A group of Berkeley students started the petition in response to Maher’s controversial comments on Islam.

The petition read:

It garnered more than 4,000 signatures.

Maher said on Twitter that he would be responding to the Berkeley controversy on his HBO show Friday night.