Repression of First Amendment Rights
Floor Speech
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Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, I am deeply concerned about the escalating repression of First Amendment protected speech and assembly on college campuses across our country.
To all the elected university boards and appointed presidents, it needs to be very clear: Your students' constitutional rights don't end when they enter your campus grounds.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record statements from the ACLU and from Bend the Arc. [April 26, 2024] ACLU Urges College and University Leaders to Protect Free Speech and Academic Freedom
New York.--In response to the anti-war protests happening at colleges across the country, and the disturbing arrests that have followed, the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to leaders at both public and private universities. The letter states:
``As you fashion responses to the activism of your students (and faculty and staff), it is essential that you not sacrifice principles of academic freedom and free speech that are core to the educational mission of your respected Institution.''
Authored by ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero and National Legal Director David Cole, the letter offers university leaders five basic guardrails to ensure freedom of speech and academic freedom are protected on campus:
1. They must not single out particular viewpoints for censorship, discipline, or disproportionate punishment.
2. They must protect students from targeted discriminatory harassment and violence, but may not penalize people for taking sides on the war in Gaza, even if expressed in deeply offensive terms.
3. They can announce and enforce reasonable content-neutral time, place, or manner policies on protesting activity, but they must leave ample room for students to express themselves. These rules must be applied consistently and without regard to viewpoint.
4. They must recognize that armed police on campus can endanger students and are a measure of last resort.
5. They must resist the pressures placed on them by politicians seeking to exploit campus tensions.
The letter also informs university leaders of relevant Supreme Court precedent:
``The Supreme Court has forcefully rejected the premise that, `because of the acknowledged need for order, First Amendment protections should apply with less force on college campuses than in the community at large.' ''
The letter strongly advises university leaders to be ``cognizant of the history of law enforcement using inappropriate and excessive force in responding to protests, particularly against communities of color,'' and that--as events of the past week have made abundantly clear--arresting peaceful protestors is likely to escalate, not calm, tensions on campus.
The letter also reiterates that violence is never an acceptable protest tactic and that ``physically intimidating students by blocking their movements or pursuing them aggressively is unprotected conduct, not protected speech.'' ____ [April 25, 2024] Bend the Arc Statement on Campus Protests
As we celebrate Passover this week, we are seeing Jewish students and faculty showing up Jewishly, joining and helping to lead protests on college campuses across the nation. And we have been watching with increasing concern. Concern for Jewish safety, but also concern for our democracy. [Protest is essential to our movement work and must be protected, and we firmly stand against antisemitism being used as an excuse to threaten free speech and criticism of university and U.S. policy. To be clear, criticism of American policy towards Israel is not inherently antisemitic.]
When protests become popular movements, they bring everyone from everywhere, with all their experiences and talents. They can also bring what afflicts our society, such as antisemitism, anti-Black racism, sexism, and homophobia. These oppressions are not reflective of the movements themselves, though critics would have you believe that they define them. Many have used accusations of antisemitism, real and perceived, to attempt to discredit these protests.
The ability of Jewish students to express their Judaism, their values, and their beliefs across a full range of political views is essential and must be protected. We must not erase them from this story. They are hosting Shabbat services in tents, holding Seder, and are showing up not just for Jewish safety, but for the safety of all people.
Jewish people have long played a role in practicing free speech and protest on campus. These protests are part of our democracy. We proudly remember the movements for Civil Rights, against the Vietnam and Iraq Wars, Occupy, Black Lives Matter, and fights against sexual violence on campus. Unfortunately, these moments also recall the unconstitutional, dangerous, and unnecessary policing of these protests. We recall the images from Kent State in 1970, when the National Guard killed four peaceful, anti-war student protesters (three of whom were Jewish). Today, college administrations are bowing to McCarthy-esque congressional hearings; evicting, suspending, and arresting Jewish and other students; and barring access to places of worship and freedom to partake in Jewish ceremony--all in an obvious attempt to appease the Right.
Many Jews, on campus and otherwise, are experiencing Passover feeling a heightened fear about antisemitism. And we see how student organizers, Jewish and non-Jewish, have powerfully shown up against occurrences of antisemitism, creating safety for Jewish students. Their values and discipline in opposing antisemitism remain in stark contrast to those who claim to fight antisemitism but instead use it to sow division between Jews and our communities, undermine democracy, and fulfill the goals of white nationalism.
And in this critical dialogue about the safety of Jews and everyone in our nation, we must not allow political interests to obscure the meaning we take away from these protests: that U.S. policy must support safety and self-determination for all Palestinians and Israelis, and that next year, we make Seder in peace.
Chag Sameach.
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Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, the ACLU statement says: ``As you fashion responses to the activism of your students (and faculty and staff), it is essential that you not sacrifice principles of academic freedom and free speech that are core to the educational mission of your respected institution.''
From Bend the Arc's statement: ``Protest is essential to our movement work and must be protected, and we firmly stand against anti-Semitism being used as an excuse to threaten free speech and criticism of university and U.S. policy. To be clear, criticism of American policy towards Israel is not inherently anti-Semitic.''
Mr. Speaker, dissent is a fundamental American value, from the civil rights movement to antiwar protests to the movement for Black lives, immigrant rights, our country has a long history of students leading movements for change and challenging the status quo that oppresses and normalizes genocide across the world.
I am deeply moved by the courageous young people in more than 100 encampments at colleges across our Nation that are demanding divestment in support of a genocide in Gaza and apartheid Government of Israel.
I had the opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to visit an encampment at the University of Michigan that has public programming. They put it online for families on various issues. The day I went, they were recognizing the anniversary of the Armenian genocide and having someone also speak about the connectivity to the Palestinian Nakba. It was inspiring to see these brave students across races, of all faiths and backgrounds, standing side by side in solidarity to protest for peace. From Jummah prayer to Shabbat, they are coming together in a way I wish my colleagues would welcome.
Sending in militarized police forces and even snipers to stop these students from exercising their First Amendment rights is truly disgusting.
My colleagues are so outraged by students opposing genocide and apartheid, but many of these same Members were completely silent last year when we saw the dramatic increase of threats, literally death threats on historical Black colleges and universities across the country.
This state-sanctioned violence, including the arrests and threatened felony prosecutions of students, can only be seen as an explicit effort to silence students and take away their First Amendment rights.
Mr. Speaker, no student--not one--should be met with academic repercussions or police brutality on their own campuses for exercising, peacefully, their rights to free speech and assembly.
Why is it, Mr. Speaker, that my colleagues and every headline from mainstream media are more concerned and outraged about these protests than they are about the over 35,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza? Seventy percent of them are women and children.
There are no universities left in Gaza, but no outrage. Multiple mass graves have been uncovered at several locations that Israeli forces have recently withdrawn from. Two hundred bodies were found at al-Shifa Hospital, literally fresh bodies found with their hands tied behind their backs, naked.
Where is the outrage for these war crimes? This is not just me. This is the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Our government isn't just complicit in this genocide. We are actively participating.
Students are occupying their campuses to peacefully protest for an end to these atrocities and for divestment in this genocide and apartheid. They are even renaming some of the buildings after Palestinian children who have been killed. These students should be praised for standing up for what they believe in, not vilified, smeared with misinformation campaigns and silence.
I call on these universities to end the repressive tactics, exercise restraint, denounce ongoing police brutality, and stop suppressing the very activism, academic freedom, and thoughtful debate that they seek to inspire in their students.
Mr. Speaker, we don't want to see an apology years later. No. We want to see action today to protect these students. We don't want to have you all, in 10 years, praise the same students for doing what was right. We don't want to see it. We need it now. They deserve it now.
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