Feds in New Effort to Kill 1st Amendment on College Campuses

[Kaitzilla]

From the premier protector of free speech rights on college campuses FIRE comes this:
http://thefire.org/article/15767.html

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2013—In a shocking affront to the United States Constitution, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education have joined together to mandate that virtually every college and university in the United States establish unconstitutional speech codes that violate the First Amendment and decades of legal precedent.

"I am appalled by this attack on free speech on campus from our own government," said Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which has been leading the fight against unconstitutional speech codes on America's college campuses since its founding in 1999. "In 2011, the Department of Education took a hatchet to due process protections for students accused of sexual misconduct. Now the Department of Education has enlisted the help of the Department of Justice to mandate campus speech codes so broad that virtually every student will regularly violate them. The DOE and DOJ are ignoring decades of legal decisions, the Constitution, and common sense, and it is time for colleges and the public to push back."

In a letter sent yesterday to the University of Montana that explicitly states that it is intended as "a blueprint for colleges and universities throughout the country," the Departments of Justice and Education have mandated a breathtakingly broad definition of sexual harassment that makes virtually every student in the United States a harasser while ignoring the First Amendment. The mandate applies to every college receiving federal funding—virtually every American institution of higher education nationwide, public or private.

The letter states that "sexual harassment should be more broadly defined as 'any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature'" including "verbal conduct" (that is, speech). It then explicitly states that allegedly harassing expression need not even be offensive to an "objectively reasonable person of the same gender in the same situation"—if the listener takes offense to sexually related speech for any reason, no matter how irrationally or unreasonably, the speaker may be punished.

Wow, I already knew colleges regularly crush free speech on their own initiative, but at least you had a choice to go to a different college.

Looks like guilty until proven innocent is changing into guilty no matter what until selectively punished.

 

[Formaldehyde]

I am curious as to why this moral outrage appears to be confined to this organization regarding a DoJ settlement with the University of Montana over their lack of properly responding to numerous sexual assaults.

 

[aelf]

Colleges are liberal strongholds where kids get brainwashed, no? Why are you surprised?

 

[JollyRoger]

A college can opt out of Federal funding.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I wish they'd quote the parts of the 31-page letter for their examples of sexual harassment.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Wow, I already knew colleges regularly crush free speech on their own initiative, but at least you had a choice to go to a different college. Looks like guilty until proven innocent is changing into guilty no matter what until selectively punished.

There's rape
then there's legitmate rape. (By the Federal government)

MISSOULA, Mont. -- The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation into the way Missoula police, prosecutors and the University of Montana have responded to reports of sexual assault and harassment after the agency learned of complaints that cases were not being properly handled.

The investigation was disclosed Tuesday after a preliminary examination conducted earlier this year concluded there was enough evidence to move ahead with a full probe, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez said.

Lawyers from the Justice Department's civil rights division will look at all 80 sexual assaults reported by women in Missoula over the past three years. Eleven sexual assaults involving university students have been reported in the past 18 months. Prosecutors were trying to figure out whether those university complaints were included in the total number of citywide assaults reported.

 

[Rashiminos]

A college can opt out of Federal funding.

Which would probably serve them better in this case.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I for one am getting sick and tired of the Amendments. Kill them. Kill them good. Then talk about how this rule is oversensitive and silly without bleating "Amendment ".

 

[Farm Boy]

Ok then. The rule if in truth is as depicted here is oversensitive and abusive while also being silly. Reasonable person standards exist for good reason. Stripping them seems to be a product of mental damage.

 

[Borachio]

I for one am getting sick and tired of the Amendments. Kill them. Kill them good. Then talk about how this rule is oversensitive and silly without bleating "Amendment ".

That's what you get for writing stuff down in the first place. And not writing it right in the first place.

If you don't have a written constitution, no one is any the wiser.