In this article, the author discusses the enforcement of "hate speech" codes and confirms research that considers why U.S. colleges and universities continue to promulgate student disciplinary rules prohibiting expression that "subordinates" others or is "demeaning, offensive, or hateful." Such continued adherence to speech codes is by now predictable, but remains puzzling. From a lawyer's perspective, the courts have spoken: Broadly written speech codes adopted by public institutions--and private institutions adhering to First Amendment standards--are unconstitutional. The legal parameters are becoming so well settled that enforcement of those codes may expose public-college administrators to personal liability for violating clearly established constitutional rights. Understanding the speech-code phenomenon, however, requires looking beyond the law to the realities of campus politics. However sporadically enforced, speech codes serve the administrative purpose of broadcasting an easily identifiable institutional commitment to providing a safe and welcoming environment to a wide array of presumably vulnerable students. What's rarely considered, however, is the likely long-term impact on those very students whom administrators seek to protect.