There appears to be a growing war against free speech on college campuses across America, and it is a battle we as a society and culture simply cannot lose. If you recall, last fall I highlighted a case in which a student at Modesto Junior College in California was prevented from handing out Constitutions to fellow students on Constitution Day. I suggest you go back and take a read and watch the very troubling video: California Student Banned from Handing Out Constitutions on Campus.
Well it appears that the Constitution is also considered contraband in the state of Hawaii. According to the Daily Caller:
Students Merritt Burch and Anthony Vizzone, members of the Young Americans for Liberty chapter at UH-Hilo, were prevented from handing out copies of the Constitution at a recruitment event in January. A week later, they were again informed by a censorship-minded administrator that their First Amendment-protected activities were in violation of school policy.
Young Americans for Liberty is a great organization by the way.
The students were told that they could only distribute literature from within UH-Hilo’s “free speech zone,” a small, muddy, frequently-flooded area on the edge of campus.
Administrators further clarified their level of respect for students’ free speech rights, making comments like, “This isn’t really the ’60s anymore,” and “people can’t really protest like that anymore,” according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
Administrators also maintained that university policy took precedent over Constitutional rights, according to the complaint.
“It’s not about your rights in this case, it’s about the University policy that you can’t approach people,” said Ellen Kusano, director of Student Affairs, according to the complaint.
While the above is absolutely ridiculous, and more representative of a totalitarian state than anything remotely resembling freedom, there is some good news. The same law firm that sued on behalf of the Modesto student I mentioned earlier (who won a $50,000 settlement), is suing on behalf of the University of Hawaii student.
Fox News reports that:
Two students at the University of Hawaii at Hilo are suing the school over alleged First Amendment violations after they were told by a campus official that they couldn’t approach fellow students to hand out copies of the Constitution.
The students are being represented by Davis Wright Tremaine, the law firm that recently helped a student who was blocked last year from handing out copies of the Constitution win a $50,000 settlement against Modesto Junior College in California.
According to the complaint, an administrator told Burch and Vizzone that if they wanted to protest the school’s policy, they could do so in the college’s “free speech zone,” described by FIRE as a one-third acre area on the edge of campus.
The “free speech zone” at UH Hilo represents less than one percent of the college’s total area and is muddy and prone to flooding, according to a FIRE news release.
“The First Amendment is not optional at public colleges—it’s the law. Enforcing restrictive ‘free speech zone’ policies that prevent students from passing out copies of the Constitution is impossible to justify,” Lukianoff said in a statement.
So the good news is these kids know their rights and they are fighting back. We should also applaud the efforts of the folks representing these kids at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
One important takeaway, which I am sure you noticed, is this ridiculous concept of “free speech zones” that the statists are attempting to use everywhere in an effort to stifle free speech. This was one of the things I most strong objected to in the BLM’s raid on the Bundy Ranch. I articulated this in my article: Why the Standoff at the Bundy Ranch is a Very Big Deal.
Michael Krieger
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Michael, I totally agree with you about the free speech zones. If free speech is zoned, then it is no longer free speech; it is “restricted free speech” or “imprisoned free speech” – a concept clearly invented by oxymorons.
What stuns me is how many allies these inanities attract. See ya on the battlefield, Mike, ’cause I ain’t gettin’ on no train.
Hi Mike,
ok first didn’t we learn about the first amendment in grade school? I have one for you in a grade school in Ca. where my granddaughter had started first grade when the parents brought their kids to school in the play ground area and I use the term play very loosely, they have these feet prints painted all around the edge of the area of the blacktop, so picture this in your mind, The parents and children all have to walk following these prints around the area continually until the children can line up in front of their class rooms. IF they are a little early they are not aloud to just stand there and wait with their kids for the teachers to get there they have to walk around following these stupid painted foot prints. I had to go to the school to see this for myself because I didn’t believe that it was against the rules to Stand near your childs classroom waiting for class to start in the morning and talk with the other parents. But what really got me was all these parents actually doing this. So for adult students in college to walk up to another student and hand them anything at all doesn’t surprise me much less an important document as that document is because not only is it one of the most important piece of parchment paper or just a copy of a piece of paper that has the most important words on it but it is the biggest threat to the socialist government in our country and that is THE VERY RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY the one’s that are being stripped from us. Can you imagine how they would have acted if it would have been a Bible. Well when God said that our leaders would be like children I guess He forgot to mention the colleges would be run by idiots too. God Bless and good luck to the young Americans group protecting our and their rights
As a Marine vet from the Viet Nam era, retired now, I was very fortunate not be in these places where these fools were trying to take charge. I am afraid that the cue they would have been in would not have been the unemployment line. These are the same people that want cops in our schools to change discipline charges to criminal charges. The original purpose was to protect the students from criminal acts but the actual use is to show the kids who actually ran the place, bigoted white dudes.