Trump Administration Joins Battle Against Restricting Campus Free Speech

Trump Administration Joins Battle Against Restricting Campus Free Speech

This is great news. The whole concept of free speech zones is antithetical to academia.

The College Fix reports:

Trump administration joins legal fight against campus speech zones

Free speech advocacy groups have a new ally: the Trump administration. But not all of them want the allyship.

The Justice Department filed a “statement of interest” in a lawsuit against a public college in Georgia that slapped an evangelical student with a “disorderly conduct” charge for proselytizing outside the tiny campus free speech zones, which require reservations and prior review from administrators.

In a Tuesday release, the department agreed that the restrictions placed on Chike Uzuegbunam – including a prohibition on speech that “disturbs the … comfort” of people on campus – violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights:

The Justice Department argues the college’s speech policies were not content-neutral, established an impermissible heckler’s veto, and were not narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling government interest.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education said Tuesday that DOJ entered a slam-dunk case, summarizing Georgia Gwinnett College’s defense of its policies:

[I]t should unconstitutionally restrict speech, so it should therefore be allowed to enact further unconstitutional restrictions on speech.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in the same DOJ statement that a “national recommitment to free speech on campus and to ensuring First Amendment rights is long overdue.”

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