Tennessee Republican Presents Resolution Asking Colleges to Ditch ‘Free Speech Zones’

Tennessee Republican Presents Resolution Asking Colleges to Ditch ‘Free Speech Zones’

The very concept of isolating free speech to certain areas is insulting. We need more representatives to speak up in this way.

Campus Reform reports:

Congressman breathes fresh air into campus free speech debate ahead of Trump’s exec. order

Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) is seeking to remove free speech zones on college campuses with House Resolution 191 after a previous version of the resolution did not advance to the House Floor during the 2017-2018 session. The move came just days after President Donald Trump announced at the Conservative Political Action Conference his intent to sign an executive order to require colleges to support free speech in order to receive federal research dollars.

“Colleges and universities were once the hotbeds of free speech and debate, and as a Vietnam-era veteran I saw this first-hand, even though I sometimes disagreed with that speech wholeheartedly,” he said in a Thursday press release.

Roe continued to explain that in the 21st century, colleges use free speech zones, along with speech codes, to “drown out free speech.”

“Free speech zones and restrictive speech codes are inherently at odds with the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution; and institutions of higher education should facilitate and recommit themselves to protecting the free and open exchange of ideas,” the new resolution states.

Roe’s resolution also mentions free speech scandals on numerous campuses, as well as several Supreme Court cases. It cites Healy v. James (1972), which held that the First Amendment is entirely applicable to public colleges and universities and Widmar v. Vincent (1981), which says that “the campus of a public university, at least for its students, possesses many of the characteristics of a public forum.”

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.