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posted by Fnord666 on Friday August 11 2017, @11:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the not-in-my-safe-space dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

With Governor Roy Cooper (D) taking no action on the bill, the state of North Carolina has enacted the Restore Campus Free Speech Act, the first comprehensive campus free-speech legislation based on the Goldwater proposal. That proposal, which I [Stanley Kurtz (Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center)] co-authored along with Jim Manley and Jonathan Butcher of Arizona's Goldwater Institute, was released on January 31 and is now under consideration in several states. It's fitting that North Carolina should be the first state to enact a Goldwater-inspired law.

[...] The North Carolina Restore Campus Free Speech Act achieves most of what the Goldwater proposal sets out to do. It ensures that University of North Carolina policy will strongly affirm the importance of free expression. It prevents administrators from disinviting speakers whom members of the campus community wish to hear from. It establishes a system of disciplinary sanctions for students and anyone else who interferes with the free-speech rights of others, and ensures that students will be informed of those sanctions at freshman orientation. It reaffirms the principle that universities, at the official institutional level, ought to remain neutral on issues of public controversy to encourage the widest possible range of opinion and dialogue within the university itself. And it authorizes a special committee created by the Board of Regents to issue a yearly report to the public, the regents, the governor, and the legislature on the administrative handling of free-speech issues.

Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/450027/north-carolina-campus-free-speech-act-goldwater-proposal


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday August 11 2017, @02:50PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday August 11 2017, @02:50PM (#552304) Journal

    and/or appearing in in protest with your personal identity disguised

    Ah yeah, I forgot that one [wikipedia.org]. Definitely existing law that is very applicable to some of these protests.

    Heckling/shouting in attempt to disrupt an event would in a normal world be considered disturbing the peace, which is a criminal offense

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disorderly_conduct [wikipedia.org]
    http://www.thirteen.org/metrofocus/2011/10/op-ed-disorderly-conduct-how-protesting-became-a-crime-in-nyc/ [thirteen.org]
    http://www.newseuminstitute.org/first-amendment-center/topics/freedom-of-assembly/funeral-protests/ [newseuminstitute.org]

    It's a typical "contempt of cop" charge and likely to be dropped in the case of protesters (as opposed to wandering around drunk and loud), if it is brought against them at all. It's a good way to remove protesters from the area only to release them after hours or a day.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @03:16PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @03:16PM (#552340)

    It's a good way to remove protesters from the area only to release them after hours or a day.

    Absolutely, and I'd hope that's the idea of these acts. The last thing we need is another reason to put people behind bars for meaningful amount of time for petty violations. A token fine and a night in jail until the judge releases them on a personal recognizance bond the next day is what I think would be ideal. It's just an active reminder that you can express yourself without interfering with others who are just trying to do the exact same thing.