New Law Will Protect Free Speech on Campus

WASHINGTON - EntSun -- Awaiting only the governor's signature, Tennessee has a new law designed to protect free speech and robust debate on campuses by prohibiting the heckler's veto, academic cancel culture, disruptive walkouts, and other activities all too commonly used by small groups of students to silence views with which they disagree and/or to prevent other interested students from hearing such views.

Although the new law now applies now only to public colleges and universities within Tennessee, it is likely that legislators in other states will adopt similar legislation if this one seems to improve the situation on campus, and other institutions of higher education within Tennessee may feel pressure to adopt similar measures, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

Professor Banzhaf, who has won several free speech court cases, helped trigger other actors to crack down on students who disrupt speakers and the institutions which permit them to do so without penalty,
This Law Professor Took on Nixon and Trump. Now He's Facing Off Against Stanford Law School Students.

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John Banzhaf says he plans to file a bar complaint against the students who disrupted Fifth Circuit judge Kyle Duncan (https://freebeacon.com/campus/this-law-professor-took-on-nixon-and-trump-now-hes-facing-off-against-stanford-law-school-students/)

For example, several judges announced that they would no longer consider law students from Stanford Law School as possible law clerks, and "Such statements have made Banzhaf the strange bedfellow of Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas), who this month urged the Texas bar to 'take particular care' with graduates of Stanford Law School"; a suggestion which was then adopted.

Among its many provisions, Senate Bill 1741/House Bill 1476 (https://capitol.tn.gov/Bills/114/Amend/SA0794.pdf) would reportedl (https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/fr... forbid public colleges and universities and their faculty from disinviting speakers invited by other faculty or student groups "in response to threatened protests or opposition from students or faculty or because of the [speaker's] viewpoints."

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It would also protect invited speakers from being shouted down and from having their view of the audience blocked by protesters' bodies, signs or other objects.

The law would also ban universities and faculty from denying student groups recognition or denying employers on-campus student interviews due to either the groups or the employers' "sincere religious beliefs," or their positions, religious or not, "concerning abortion, homosexuality, or transgender behavior."

In addition, the law mandates that Universities and faculty can't "retaliate in any way or discriminate" against a faculty member for their viewpoints in scholarly work or in "any speech or writing protected by the First Amendment."

The new law is much needed and very timely, suggests the activist law professor, who notes what just happened a another California law school:
Chaos Erupts as Leftists Interrupt Conservative Group's UCLA Event Featuring DHS Lawyer (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/watch-chaos-er...-)

http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf