Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a democrat, vetoed a bill on Monday that would have protected free speech at Louisiana’s colleges and universities.
Gov. Edwards vetoes college free speech protection bill
Louisiana HB 269 was introduced last March by state representative Lance Harris (R – District 25) to protect speakers at Louisiana’s college and universities from the type of lawlessness and violence launched against conservative speakers on campuses across the nation.
The bill would have punished students who interfere with another’s free speech rights. Similar legislation has been proposed or enacted in other states as a result of violence directed against conservative speakers and students by liberal students and faculty.
Syracuse University professor Dana Cloud, a self-proclaimed socialist, made headlines last week after she tweeted for her supporters to join a mob of ANTIFA thugs, and help them “finish off” an “ACT for America” group who had obtained a permit to march for their cause.
University of California – Fresno professor Gregory Thatcher dismissed his class and instructed them to destroy pro-life messages being chalked on the sidewalk by a student group who had obtained permission from the university for their actions. Thatcher is now being sued by the group for violating their free speech rights.
Mobs of violent liberal students have disrupted free speech on college campuses across the country, at Rutgers University, University of California – Berkeley, New York University, the University of Miami College, Florida Atlantic University, Villanova University and DePaul University. In several incidents, the disruptions escalated to real violence, with student thugs setting fires, breaking windows, and destroying school property. In more than a few incidents, the violence and threats were tolerated or even encouraged by liberal faculty and staff.
“a solution in search of a problem”?
While there have been exceptions, the attacks on free speech at colleges across the nation have been largely instigated by liberal Democrat students and faculty. The bill’s sponsor Rep. Harris, said he introduced the bill as a result of threats against conservative speakers at the University of California at Berkeley and other colleges. Harris reports he has received messages from students and faculty advising him that such a law was needed in Louisiana.
Governor Edwards however, himself a liberal Democrat, seemed dismissive of the need for such protection. The bill, he said, is a “solution in search of a problem.”
Editor’s note: One cannot help but wonder if Governor Edwards is ignorant of the problem, or simply does not view attacks against conservative speakers on college campuses to be “a problem”?
