FIRST AMENDMENT

GOP Bill Would Punish College Speech Protesters

Wisconsin lawmakers look to combat anti-right-wing college speech protests.

A Republican-sponsored bill in the Wisconsin State Assembly would punish students who disrupt speeches and maintain that public campuses would have to remain neutral. The legislative proposal comes in response to a wave of protests at college campuses across the U.S. as a reaction to speeches from alt-right and controversial conservative speakers. According to the Associated Press, campuses would have to adopt policies about remaining neutral on public controversies. Additionally, the AP reported, “The policy also would have to include a range of disciplinary sanctions for students and faculty who engage in ‘violent, abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, obscene, unreasonably loud, or other disorderly conduct’ that interferes with someone's free speech rights. The bill doesn't define what constitutes any of that behavior. Students would be entitled to a disciplinary hearing and appeals. Any student found to have interfered with someone's free expression twice would be suspended for a semester or expelled. And anyone who feels his or her free speech rights have been violated can bring a lawsuit within a year to stop the violation.”