A tension exists on college and university campuses across America today concerning how to pursue liberal, rational, open learning and, at the same time, celebrate a spirit of academic community--in short, how to exercise free expression and maintain civility. In this article, the author begins with an exploration of the boundaries of free speech, especially in the troubling context of hate speech. He goes on to address two issues. First, where is the limit on expression? Where does protected, hateful speech cross over into being a prohibited hate crime? On campuses, this question is not typically about criminal behavior per se. But the question is the same: when does behavior cross over from being protected, however hateful, and become the proper subject of disciplinary action or even expulsion? The second issue concerns the proper response to hateful speech that is, in fact, protected. To say that it is protected is a threshold issue, not the end of the discussion. This leads to the compelling topic with which America generally, and academia particularly, is preoccupied today: the relationship between free expression and civility in the public square.