Restore/Preserve Campus Free Speech (H527) is Now Law in NC, no Thanks to Gov. Cooper

Today, Restore/Preserve Campus Free Speech (H527) became law without the Governor's signature. I was proud to work on this bill since its inception with legislators, the UNC system and many others including free speech advocates all over the country.

The new law ensures that our universities will follow the First Amendment and protect the rights of students, faculty, and guests to speak freely on all the issues of the day. In order for our universities to be effective, the marketplace of ideas must be open on campus. Today, with this bill becoming law, free speech will once again be restored and preserved.

​Source: Dan Forest

Saw this this morning and wanted to share. This is something several states are currently working on doing. But thankfully, NC has gotten it done. Without the help of the governor who declined to sign the thing. 

I'm hoping this will assist with students who want to speak their minds outside of the liberal sphere, but I do fear that this won't actually accomplish a whole lot. Take the issues at Berkley. While a law like this might stop Berkley from preventing speakers from coming to campus - might being the operative word, as you can get real creative here to make it look like you aren't blocking speakers due to their views - it won't do anything to stop something like the reaction to Milo speaking... burning down the campus and destroying property. That requires police intervention, which Berkley wasn't willing to allow. 

Most of the comments on this were positive, but there were a few people who thought this was an offense strong enough to warrant voting Lt. Gov Forest out of office. Things like this:

Honestly? Yes. It does. If this actually happened - and there was debate following this comment on whether or not it did - then this guy would be a raging douche canoe. But as long as he isn't physically confronting anyone or making threats, he does, in fact, have that right. It's an opinion that women are sluts because they wear pants. An extremely old opinion that most likely went the way of the Dodo before even he was born - but an opinion none the less. And he's entitled to that. 

Freedom isn't always comfortable or agreeable, but the great part of freedom is you can choose how to deal with it to a degree. Obviously, you can't threaten him or physically attack him. But you can choose to laugh at him and walk away. You can choose the mock him. You can choose to share your opinion. Flash him a little ankle and run off! But do you have a right to silence him? No, you don't. That's freedom. He gets to have it, too.

Yes, they will. And they should. You also have a right to protest. You really can protest anything and everything in this country, and if you watch the news, you know people do! A lot of the protesters are peaceful. Annoying, but peaceful. I'm not fond of the ones that get into the talks to disrupt or anything like that because they are taking a seat from someone who wants to be there, and in most cases, they are trying to silence the speaker. But if you disagree with the speaker and go in to engage in an actual conversation, that's great! If you stand outside holding signs, that's great, too. The issue comes in when "protesters" start physically attacking people who are going in to see the speaker, blocking people from entering, destroying property, setting fires, and causing people to feel as though their lives are in danger. Because that is silencing someone. 

But as I said, you have the right in this country to protest. And while I don't agree with all protesters - who does? - I do believe that, if they remain peaceful and aren't trying to silence anyone in any way, then let them be. You don't have a right to silence the protesters, just as they don't have the right to silence the speakers. 

That's the point of all of this. Stop trying to silence people. Everyone has a right to speak their mind in this country, no matter how detestable their thoughts and opinions may be. Things changed and flowed in this country, and things got done in this country, because people stood up and said unpopular things. Silencing ideas, opinions and thoughts because you don't like them stifles progress and innovation. It forces the country to stagnate. And it erases freedom.