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posted by cmn32480 on Sunday May 07 2017, @07:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the when-the-First-Amendment-isn't-clear-enough dept.

NPR reports:

On college campuses, outrage over provocative speakers sometimes turns violent.

It's becoming a pattern on campuses around the country. A speaker is invited, often by a conservative student group. Other students oppose the speaker, and maybe they protest. If the speech happens, the speaker is heckled. Sometimes there's violence.

In other cases — as with conservative commentator Ann Coulter at the University of California, Berkeley last week — the event is called off.

Now, a handful of states, including Illinois, Tennessee, Colorado and Arizona, have passed or introduced legislation designed to prevent these incidents from happening. The bills differ from state to state, but they're generally based on a model written by the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Arizona.

The model bill would require public universities to remain neutral on political issues, prevent them from disinviting speakers, and impose penalties for students and others who interfere with these speakers.

The author of the model bill argues that the neutrality stipulation is necessary for public institutions funded by tax dollars, "who shouldn't be forced to subsidize speech that they disagree with." In response to the legislation, a Democratic North Carolina legislator criticized the bill as an unnecessary "regulation of a constitutional right." The story also mentions that "Critics say this kind of legislation could hinder a university's ability to regulate hate speech on campus," but the bill author responds that hate speech is "not well-defined in the law."

Although the proposed legislation varies by state, the model bill linked above recommends a number of initiatives, from clear campus policies on protecting free speech to severe disciplinary actions for students who interfere with that right. Perhaps the strongest section of the model bill would require that "Any student who has twice been found responsible for infringing the expressive rights of others will be suspended for a minimum of one year, or expelled" (Section 1.9).

In other free speech news, USA Today reports that the FCC is launching an investigation into an "obscene" joke by Stephen Colbert concerning Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, which caused a Twitter firestorm and led to a trending #FireColbert hashtag. While the joke was sexually explicit, the offensive word was bleeped in broadcast. CNN has argued that the FCC is merely doing its job in investigating "a number" of complaints, but Slate notes the high legal threshold that would be necessary for a fine in this case, given the late hour of the broadcast and the three-pronged test for obscenity.


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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday May 08 2017, @10:17AM (6 children)

    That's not trolling, just the truth. Now if I'd said Nye still wouldn't have won the debate if he were the only one with a mic, that could have been considered trolling. Learn the difference between things you don't want to hear and trolling, please.

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    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday May 08 2017, @06:46PM (5 children)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Monday May 08 2017, @06:46PM (#506491) Journal

    That's not trolling, just the truth.

    Ah, the old "it's not trolling if it's true" troll! My, my, Lesser than a Condor, you are falling down on your game if hackneyed trolls like this are all you are capable of!

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday May 08 2017, @07:07PM (4 children)

      Right, it wasn't a troll. You of all people should recognize trolling.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday May 08 2017, @07:34PM (3 children)

        by aristarchus (2645) on Monday May 08 2017, @07:34PM (#506522) Journal

        Followed by the "I'm not trolling" troll? You really know how to double down, Zzub! But really we should be more professional with the trolling on SoylentNews, don't you think?

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday May 08 2017, @10:07PM (2 children)

          Okay, just for you then. Hillary didn't just cover up Bill's sexual assaults and intimidate the victims, she was the one doing the assaulting while Bill watched and jerked off.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday May 09 2017, @08:53AM (1 child)

            by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday May 09 2017, @08:53AM (#506793) Journal

            No, no no! Buzztard! This is a 14 year-old's idea of what trolling is! Seriously dude, do you even know what it is we do? Now let me clue you in on something not many people know yet, that Donald the Trump knew before he appointed Flynn that Jared and Bannon were both Soviet deep-sleeper agents, and that all three of them were aware that Donald was born in Jamaica, and so not legally able to be president. Of course, they hushed it up, because they wanted to keep their new snazzy jobs! Bzinga! Google it, bro!

            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday May 09 2017, @10:25AM

              Now now, there's no need to be intimidated by Cheeto Jesus's trolling skillz. Did you hear about his newest executive order to replace Washington with Trollface on the one dollar bill?

              Side note, that's part of why I dislike Republicans somewhat less than Democrats. With Republicans just want you to give them your dollar bills in exchange for shiny beads. Democrats want to take them away and replace them with an EBT card that gets filled based inversely on your Privilege Rating.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.