April 13, 2007

U. of R.I. Student Senate: What First Amendment?

From the FIRE, we get the latest round of leftwingers subverting free speech - (surprise!) against the College Republicans.

After hosting a $100 "white, heterosexual American males scholarship" to protest race-based scholarships, the student Senate tried to make the CR's apologize against their will in their student paper and threatened not to disburse their money::

FIRE wrote to the Student Senate to explain that the First Amendment prohibits any organization that derives its authority from a public university from compelling students to make statements against their will. When the Student Senate ignored its constitutional obligations, FIRE urged President Carothers to intervene. In a recent memo, President Carothers boldly told the Senate that its demand for an apology “does not meet constitutional standards as laid forth in the First Amendment,” and directed that “you may not impose any sanctions on the College Republicans, or any other student group, that requires them to make public statements which are not their own.” We now wait while the Senate decides whether to heed the president’s directive.

By Good Lt. at 10:37 PM | |