Attorney General Jeff Sessions directs DOJ to stop free speech ‘bullies’ on college campuses – By OAN Newsroom (oann.com) / Sept 18 2018
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is taking on the fight for the First Amendment to protect student rights on college campuses. The Department of Justice is doubling down on its views about controversial freedom of speech policies.
Sessions gave opening remarks during the department’s annual free speech forum Monday, where he took university bias-response police to task. He listed specific lawsuits the DOJ and individual students filed against schools, significantly limiting First Amendment rights on publicly-funded campuses.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions walks on stage to speak about free speech at the Georgetown University. (Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
The attorney general then highlighted the importance of having an open conversation even if they lead to discomfort between peers.
“It’s time to stand up to the bullies on campus, and the bullies in our culture,” stated Sessions. “There are radicals out there that have openly and systematically justified actions that would deny Americans their right to speak out against their favorite ideological agenda — we must put an end to such nonsense.”
Public universities have since begun altering existing freedom of speech policies in the wake of the latest lawsuits.
The agency was involved in a 2016 suit between a student and Atlanta, Georgia’s Gwinnett College and a former student. The school only offered a small space on campus where students could openly exercise their First Amendment rights. After Sessions filed a motion which backed the students’ legal battle, Gwinnett ultimately updated their policies to permit speech about one’s views or beliefs anywhere on campus.
Lawyers representing Gwinnett College students are continuing to work with the DOJ to overturn similar policies on other campuses.
