Posted on 05/30/2016 7:59:13 PM PDT by jazusamo
State Rep. Anthony Kern said he handed out materials as part of a church group on the Glendale Community College campus for several years without any trouble.
But one year, “all of a sudden they came up with this free speech zone which was way away from the people,” the Republican told the Arizona Capitol Times.
That inspired Kern to introduce House Bill 2615, which broadens campus “free speech zones” to the entire public college campus as opposed to designated areas. It provides students the right to exercise their First Amendment rights without concerns about the time, place and manner unless the public higher education institution can prove the restriction is reasonable and justified.
“The First Amendment right of free speech is a bedrock founding principle of our Republic,” said Gov. Doug Ducey (R) when he signed the legislation this month. “Likewise, part of the university experience is to be able to express diverse views, openly, without fear of retribution or intimidation – and to be exposed to other views and perspectives, even if they aren’t politically correct or popular.”
“These bills protect free speech throughout our college campuses, and also ensure an individual’s right to engage in free speech isn’t shut down by someone else who disagrees with his or her perspective,” Ducey added.
Gov. Ducey also signed House Bill 2548 which could help people like Brittany Mirelez.
The Paradise Valley Community College student filed suit against PVCC after administrators prevented her from recruiting on campus for a Young Americans for Liberty chapter.
Mirelez’s suit claimed that by confining her to a pre-designated free speech zone, her First Amendment rights had been violated.
HB 2548 gives students the right to file lawsuits against colleges and universities, and to receive an award judgment if the court finds that the university or community college has restricted the student’s speech.
Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian organization that states its purpose is “defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation," filed the Mirelez suit.
“Arizona students should have the ability to make sure that government officials are not inappropriately censoring their speech on campus in violation of state law,” ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer testified during a House Education Committee hearing on HB2548. “Closing this loophole allows students to go to court, when necessary so that government officials can’t get away with ignoring the law.”
Of course, the creation of college and university campus free-speech zones is not exclusive to Arizona.
Greg Lukianoff, the president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said roughly one in every six college campuses have free speech zones to which the freedom to speak publicly is restricted.
And while the issue of free speech zones on college campuses hit the mainstream media for the first time in 2016, Lukianoff said it was nothing new to his organization.
“Too often students find their voices silenced, and increasingly their professors are finding themselves in the same boat,” said Lukianoff. “If this year’s ‘worst’ list proves anything, it’s that even tenured faculty members aren’t safe from the censor’s muzzle.”
FIRE published a list of the nation’s ten worst abusers of college student and faculty free speech rights in February 2016, none of which were in Arizona.
Students like Bethany Bowra at Florida Atlantic University are speaking out against free speech zones.
“Enough is enough. We don’t need safe zones, we don’t need to be babied. We actually want to be able to be offended,” she told the Fox Business Network. “We want our right to be offended to be protected on our college campus.”
But others believe that like the classic example of shouting “fire” in a crowded theater not be protected by the First Amendment, there are limits to what can and should be said on a college campus.
“It’s hard to say absolutely that there should be no limits,”Professor Mark Rectanustold Iowa State Daily. “I think speech should be respectful of whoever speaking chooses to address. Some forms of speech are targeted. Some are very open. But I think all speech interactions should try to be respectful of the community they’re in.”
Arizona’s HB 2548 became something more than was intended when an amendment, also related to free speech, was approved in the Senate.
Protesters who blocked Phoenix roads before a Trump campaign rally in March can take credit for inspiring the amendment to HB 2548.
It increases penalties against people who block access to government meetings or hearings, or political campaign rallies like the Trump campaign event.
Arizona Republic columnist E.J. Montini wrote that is where Gov. Ducey’s advocacy of free speech went off the rails.
Montini called the amendment to HB 2548 the “Donald Trump Exception” and argued America has a long tradition of protesters occupying offices, blocking traffic, and refusing to leave lunch counters.
“I understand why some politicians don't like it,” Montini wrote. “But threatening citizens with heavy fines and jail time isn’t a way to protect free speech. It’s a way to shut people up.”
No one cares what the Disco Era boy Montini thinks anyway.
Hal Lindsey touched on the subject of free speech and actions on college campuses on the latest episode of The Hal Lindsey Report.
I’ve lived in Arizona for years. I even taught night classes at Glendale College. As usual, EJ Montini is full of beans. Keeping others from exercising their rights by force is NOT in the American tradition.
Yep, he sounds like a real jerk.
>>Montini called the amendment to HB 2548 the “Donald Trump Exception” and argued America has a long tradition of protesters occupying offices, blocking traffic, and refusing to leave lunch counters.
>>“I understand why some politicians don’t like it,” Montini wrote. “But threatening citizens with heavy fines and jail time isn’t a way to protect free speech. It’s a way to shut people up.”
Montini needs to get a clue as to the difference between free speech and infringing on my right to free speech and freedom of travel. And occupying an office is trespassing plain and simple, not “free speech” as he attempts to assert.
Well done AZ legislature.
Right on. Leftists are in favor of free speech as long as it is not in conflict with theirs.
As usual the pinkos claim that obstructing opposing viewpoints is somehow an exercise in free speech.
I’m sure he would give his full support to those Americans who block the entrance to an abortuary.
/s
Montini is a liberal jackass. A real low I.Q. jerk.
Love this!!
The very leaders of the schools today restricting free speech of others were the hippies demanding free speech way back.
And often their speech was far from respectful. Not even getting into the riots and burning buildings.
.
E.J. Montini is a typical newspaper doofus.
Morons like Monyini are who made redundant legislation necessary!”
Why should additional legislation be necessary to safeguard the very First Amendment? To shut up for good imbeciles like Montini.
And it's disgusting to equate racial civil rights like refusing to leave a lunch counter to blocking traffic and endangering potentially tens of thousands.
Far as I know no federal or state constitution has given special powers for the mentally deficient (or judge, but I repeat myself) to write laws inhibiting free speech directly or indirectly.
Unfortunately those same morons will define bullhorns or blocking access to free association, or badgering a non-willing stranger to listen, as "freedom of speech."
THOSE morons also must be just as vigorously stomped on (figuratively) with fines, as well as mandatory jail time.
Enough is enough!
Suppression of free speech has been a tool of tyrants for a 2000 years, and yet some criminals still support it.
1st Amendment? How ‘bout the 2nd?
Starts to get into ‘scary territory’ with the 5th; making everything THINK RE: colleges sucking down the illegal taxpayer $$..../semi-s
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