Student Leaders Petition Kentucky Lawmakers for Campus Free Speech Protection

Student Leaders Petition Kentucky Lawmakers for Campus Free Speech Protection

Leaders from the College Republicans and Young Americans for Liberty, a Libertarian group, spearheaded this initiative. Good for them.

Campus Reform reports:

Ky. student leaders petition lawmakers for free speech

Various student leaders representing bipartisan political groups at Kentucky public universities sent a letter demanding that Kentucky lawmakers pass a free speech protection bill.

In a Feb. 1 letter, 18 student leaders, including those representing College Republicans and Young Americans for Liberty, addressed four Kentucky state legislators: Chairman Max Wise, Chairwoman Regina Huff, Sen. Will Schroder, and Rep. Savannah Maddox. The students asked the lawmakers to support “important campus free speech legislation” to protect students’ First Amendment rights.

“Across the country, speech codes have been used against students of all parts of the political spectrum,” the student leaders assert.

The letter pointed out that bill SB 237, the “Campus Free Speech Protection Act,” was “designed to prohibit public colleges and universities from limiting speech and expressive activity with unconstitutional speech codes, including policies that impose unconstitutionally restrictive ‘free speech zones.’”

The Senate passed SB 237 with “significant bipartisan support,” according to the letter, but the “House Education Committee failed to take action on the bill.” The letter mentioned that free speech nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) had examined eight public colleges in Kentucky and found that only one maintained policies that were fully in accord with the First Amendment.

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