March 23, 2019 - 9:00am
While he has broken with conservatives on issues ranging from voting with Democrats against President Donald Trump’s executive action to build a wall on the southern border to supporting a carbon tax, U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., is trying to protect speech on college campuses.
Earlier this month, Rooney introduced the “Free Right to Expression in Education (FREE) Act.”
“This legislation will prevent colleges from quarantining free expression and end unconstitutional zones used to stifle student speech. In combination with President Trump’s proposed executive order to cut off research funding to schools that do not respect freedom of speech, we can stop this erosion of our constitutional rights,” Rooney’s office noted about the proposal.
“Many colleges and universities restrict our First Amendment rights by limiting ‘protected’ speech to certain narrowly restricted areas instead of nurturing campus-wide free speech,” Rooney said when he introduced the bill. “Our freedom of speech should not be confined to designated areas. Free speech is either free or it is not. That is what the 1st Amendment is all about.
“Higher education should be a platform for the peaceful but free exchange of ideas and open debate,” Rooney added. “Learning occurs when one’s beliefs are challenged and defended. This is what the original idea of the university was based upon.”
Rooney’s bill was sent to the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee two weeks ago but it has not picked up much steam since then. So far, he has not reeled in any cosponsors. There is no version of the bill yet over in the U.S. Senate.
Trying to gain some momentum for his proposal, Rooney penned a piece that ran at the Daily Caller this week.
“Many colleges and universities use dangerous and insidious methods to suppress free speech. One example is ‘free speech zones,’ which are specifically delineated areas on a campus where ‘free speech’ is allowed, converting these words into an oxymoron. An absolute truth, a right guaranteed under the Constitution, should not become a negotiable, transient issue of policy. When we go down the road of dismissing or flouting elements of the Constitution we are damaging the institutions which have flourished under it and risk inviting similar attacks on other constitutional rights,” Rooney wrote before showcasing examples of the problems plaguing campuses across the nation.
“In an ironic case at Kellogg Community College in Michigan, students were arrested for handing out copies of the United States Constitution without the administration’s permission. How incredible is this? In their greatest hopes, Marx and Lenin couldn’t have been bold enough to conceive of this,” Rooney wrote before turning to his proposal.
“This assault on the First Amendment is occurring with greater frequency on campuses every day and is wholly unacceptable. For this reason, I have introduced H.R. 1672, the Free Right to Expression in Education Act. This legislation, which was first introduced in the 115th Congress by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, will prevent colleges from quarantining free expression and end the unconstitutional ‘zones’ used to stifle student speech,” Rooney insisted. “There are a multitude of other assaults on our constitutional right of free speech that must also be addressed, such as college professors that seek to indoctrinate and block free debate in classes, leading to groupthink — the phenomenon where the desire for conformity replaces rational thought. Banning conservative speakers from campus is another violation.
“In combination with President Trump’s executive order cutting off research funding to schools that do not respect freedom of speech, we can stop this erosion of our constitutional rights. Higher education should be a platform for the peaceful but free exchange of ideas and open debate. Learning occurs when one’s beliefs are challenged and defended. This is what the original idea of the university was all about,” Rooney concluded. “In a climate of free expression our American ideals, as embodied in the Bill of Rights, will be championed rather than compromised. Zealously protecting our constitutional rights is critical for assuring the evolution of a generation of graduates who can think critically, accept differences of opinion and assure that our hard-earned freedoms are protected and nurtured in America in the future as in the past.”
