The Justice Department issued the following statement.
The Justice Department today filed a Statement of Interest in a federal lawsuit in Mississippi, explaining that public colleges cannot trample on their students’ First Amendment rights to free speech. The lawsuit is brought by a student organization and J. Michael Brown, a former student at Jones County Junior College, a public institution of higher education in Mississippi. The college’s policies require campus administrators to preapprove all “meetings or gatherings,” and Mr. Brown alleges that college officials called the campus police on him when he sought to engage on campus with fellow students about topics such as free speech and civil liberties.
“The United States of America is not a police state,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Civil Rights Division. “Repressive speech codes are the indecent hallmark of despotic, totalitarian regimes. They have absolutely no place in our country, and the First Amendment outlaws all tyrannical policies, practices, and acts that abridge the freedom of speech.”
“Unconstitutional restrictions on our first freedoms to speak and assemble directly threaten our liberty as Americans,” said United States Attorney Mike Hurst for the Southern District of Mississippi. “While some may disagree with the content of one’s speech, we should all be fighting for everyone’s Constitutional right to speak. I pray JCJC will do the right thing, change its policies to comply with the U.S. Constitution, and encourage its students to speak and assemble throughout our free state.”
“This is yet another concerning example of students encountering limits on what, when, where, and how they learn,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. “This is happening far too often on our nation’s campuses. This Administration won’t let students be silenced. We stand with their right to speak and with their right to learn truth through the free exchange of ideas—particularly those with which they might disagree.”
Jones County Junior College’s speech policies require students to schedule all meetings and gatherings on campus with college administrators at least three days before the event. College officials reserve the right to schedule or not schedule any activity, and there are no exceptions for even the tiniest of meetings or gatherings. Violations of the college’s speech policies can be grounds for student discipline, which may include expulsion from school. In his lawsuit, Mr. Brown alleges that campus officials twice called the campus police on him as he and one or two others spoke with students on the college’s open central quadrangle about free speech, civil liberties, and marijuana legalization. In both instances, Mr. Brown contends that he was brought to the campus police chief’s office, and was intimidated by the police chief and other campus officials. After these incidents, Mr. Brown says that he stopped engaging in expressive activity on campus for fear of disciplinary action or arrest.
The government’s Statement of Interest points to Supreme Court case law explaining that the First Amendment rights of speech and association extend to the campuses of state universities. While Jones County Junior College’s “extreme preconditions to speech might not be out of place in Oceania, the fictional dystopian superstate in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four,” the Statement of Interest explains, “[t]he First Amendment to the United States Constitution . . . ensures that preconditions like these have no place in the United States of America.”
11 comments:
The commie deep staters are everywhere, even in the Free State of Jones.
You know they quietly changed the name not too long ago. It is now Jones College and they offer classes and degrees that sound like four-year colleges, but many of the classes will NOT transfer. Beware if your kid treks down there to play a sport.
No junior, no community, just Jones College. Get your Business Administration degree in two years. And then see what it gets you.
One thing I wish we could come to an understanding about is that criticism of Jews and Israel should not be immediately condemned as antisemitism.
When you advocate the murder of Jews or actually attempt to murder jews, then and only then, should you be rightfully condemned.
A person shouldn't be immune to criticism simply because of their mother's Jewish heritage.
I have to believe this is more a function of JUCO administrators running their institutions like high schools, as opposed to political ideology.
Mississippi's four-year colleges recently were highlighted by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (basically the most prominent campus free speech organization) as being one of two states with all "green light" ratings.
In my experience, JUCO leaders aren't leftists or statists by any means. But they are often unprepared to navigate the legal minefield of higher ed, and just kind of assume they won't be scrutinized.
1:31...in other words we have too many people running around with PhD's in Administration.
Unfortunately there are those who do not believe in freedom of speech.
You are absolutely correct 3:05 PM. Disagreement with the liberal left is automatically branded as HATE speech and banned! Freedom of speech has to work both ways but it doesn’t.
If Black Lives Matter tried to have a meeting in Jones County a SWAT team would have been called.
Jesse Smith, a RINO, has always been heavy handed. "My way or the highway" is his mantra.
I recall he was in the news for a secret email about 5 years ago that got Jones JC in trouble.
I hope there are key missing elements .
I can't imagine lawyers quoting George Orwell instead of court rulings in a decision. The above reads more like a political speech than a legal document.
Nor can I understand why the practical action of requiring notice for use of limited space interferes with free speech. If a venue had planned a prayer vigil for missing student at a campus location, would anyone think even one person barging in to give their political diatribe would be anything other than rude and possibly inciting violence?
I fear both the left and right have either abandoned any semblance of common sense and decency or else CDC needs to form a psychiatric division to find research if lead and other environmental exposures or mass PTSD after 9/11 has lead to the mass hysteria.
If you feel the need to share your political or religious feelings with strangers in public or private without being paid , you might not be rational.
Many idiots think freedom of speech means freedom FROM speech. Sigh.
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