from the party-of-free-speech-strikes-again dept
It might be too type to say the irony is misplaced on Republican lawmakers. They must be able to comprehending and acknowledging their very own hypocrisy to even start to acknowledge the irony. That’s why these lawmakers are so unconcerned with the long-term destruction they’re inflicting. It’s all price it if it ends in short-term success. And moreover, they’re not those who’re going to must cope with the fallout.
However once in a while, the tides flip quick sufficient even these types of lawmakers are getting caught up within the messes they’ve made. That’s the way it’s getting in Texas proper now, as Republican lawmakers search to undo campus free speech protections enacted a half-decade in the past as a result of it’s permitting individuals they don’t like to specific concepts they don’t like.
Right here’s the way it began, as reported by the Texas Tribune:
In 2019, the Legislature handed a legislation requiring faculties and universities to make sure that all out of doors widespread areas of campus can be utilized to stage a protest, so long as demonstrators don’t break the legislation or disrupt faculty actions.
That measure got here after Texas A&M leaders canceled a white nationalist rally and Texas Southern College scrapped a deliberate speech by Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park. Each occurred in 2017. Texas A&M stated it canceled the occasion resulting from security considerations whereas TSU stated it canceled Cain’s speech as a result of it was organized by an unregistered pupil group.
“Our faculty college students, our future leaders, they need to be uncovered to all concepts, I don’t care how liberal they’re or how conservative they’re,” Sen. Joan Huffman stated on the time.
A few of these similar lawmakers at the moment are concerned in an effort to create extra speech restrictions on campus as a result of college students failed to grasp the 2019 legislation was solely there to make sure the presence of white nationalist rallies on Texas college campuses. Now that these expanded protections are being loved by non-white nationalists, it’s time for a change.
Senate Invoice 2972, which handed 97-39 in a remaining Home vote on Wednesday, would give college methods’ governing boards the ability to restrict the place protests can happen on campus.
Republicans who help say it is going to stop disruption and unsafe habits seen in the course of the pro-Palestinian demonstrations final yr. Critics say the measure contradicts earlier conservative efforts to guard free speech rights on Texas campuses and is unconstitutional.
As is sort of at all times the case when Republicans begin re-writing legal guidelines they beforehand enacted, it’s the Republicans who’re flawed and the critics who’re proper. Of the 2 teams, the critics are, no less than, extra constant of their views.
There’s extra to the legislation than merely increasing the quantity of viewpoint censorship publicly-funded colleges can interact in. Along with giving universities extra discretion on time/place selections, college students can be forbidden from utilizing amplification units (together with microphones) when protesting throughout class hours, erecting in a single day encampments, taking down a college’s “U.S. flag to place up one other nation’s or group’s banner,” carrying disguises (which actually simply means carrying masks of any type, together with the COVID-prevention selection), and protesting inside 300 toes of any residences in a single day.
This was by no means an issue between 2019 and this yr, regardless that not one of the proposed restrictions had been in place because the legislation was first handed for the only real objective of forcing public universities to host far-right audio system and white nationalist rallies. However with pro-Palestine protests taking on faculty campuses, it’s time for a change. Fewer rights for everybody — one thing which will lead to fewer white nationalist rallies however a success white nationalists are more likely to take as a result of it means individuals they don’t like received’t be capable to protest both.
Even in case you ignore the blatant hypocrisy of rolling again protections simply because they’re able to defending college students Texas Republicans don’t like, there’s additionally the sheer stupidity of what’s going to seemingly change into the completed work product despatched to the governor’s desk. Right here’s FIRE lawyer Tyler Coward mentioning some apparent issues with the present proposal:
“Underneath this invoice, the college can be required to ask a pupil to take off a MAGA hat in the event that they had been carrying it at 10:15 p.m. or a Bernie Sanders shirt as a result of that’s political, that’s expressive exercise,” he stated.
In the meantime, true believers like Senator Huffman will proceed to faux her social gathering isn’t promoting out its white nationalist voting bloc with this ham-handed try and silence pro-Palestinian protesters.
Huffman, a Houston Republican who authored that 2019 legislation, voted earlier this month in favor of the brand new limits on protests, citing comparable causes talked about by different supporters. She stated the brand new measure doesn’t undermine the previous one.
Oh, but it surely does. It rolls again protections and makes it that a lot simpler for universities to dam appearances and rallies by bigots the Republic Social gathering approves of. This try and solely hurt the protesters Huffman doesn’t like whereas defending these she does like means the legislation received’t shield anybody and can make universities much less more likely to enable protests, rallies, and public appearances of any type as a result of almost any trigger could possibly be thought-about to be “political” sufficient it’s simply going to create a bunch of additional enforcement work for colleges and their native safety/police forces.
Filed Underneath: campus speech, free speech, gop, hypocrisy, palestine, protests, texas
