Republican's Ann Coulter Law Attacks free Speech on Campuses, Threatens Student Expulsion, part 2

The previous blog post introduced us to Ann Coulter's Berkeley University speaking demanded...

Some have criticized Coulter's own approach to the issue: she demanded that the university expel any student who engages "in violence, mayhem or heckling to prevent an invited speaker from speaking." 

Ann Coulter's Law introduced by Republican Rep. Robin Vos: Oddly similar, you have to wonder how Republicans do this, making what is normal and a founding principle of our Constitution into something repellent and repressive:

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R- Rochester, and Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, proposed legislation (that) would set new rules for free speech and expression on University of Wisconsin System campuses. That includes penalties for people who disrupt free expression on campus by engaging in "violent, abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, obscene, unreasonably loud or other disorderly conduct" … Students could be expelled under a bill.

The broad categories and up for interpretation expressions listed above wouldn't just chill free speech, it would discourage it under threat of punishment. Vos' fascist idea may play well for Ann Coulter and David Horowitz, who want to energize and play the political victim, but a government official
pushing...this is jaw dropping.

"The worst part of it is this incredible litany of categories, most of which, as I say, are clearly unconstitutionally vague or imprecise or undefined," said Robert O'Neil, professor emeritus of law at the University of Virginia, where he specialized in the First Amendment law. O’Neil is also a former University of Wisconsin System president.

A Tangle of Big Government & Big Brother Bureaucracy: Like voting, getting food stamps, receiving unemployment, and applying for BadgerCare, Vos and Kremer have created a maze of hearings, a "jackpot justice" system of costly lawsuits, and disciplinary procedures to endlessly navigate:  

Speakers who feel their free speech rights were violated at a UW campus could sue the institution for damages under the bill. And the legislation would create a council of UW officials that would report to lawmakers on the outcomes of discipline proceedings.

It's hard to imagine how Vos and Kremer never seemed to get the First Amendment thing, that this didn't raise any red flags. It did for readers:

UW Gives in to the now legitimized Republican Anti-Education Bullies.

Why don’t we just pass the David Horowitz Academic Bill of Rights, allow lawsuits against teachers and professors who make partisan politically incorrect liberal comments during class time, and promote conservative talking points that have no practical use in society? Why not?

Then and only then will Republicans find the money to support public universities…or maybe by that time they’ll all be private, siphoning taxpayer dollars away to pad their bottom lines and give themselves bonuses. 

My heart sank as I read about the UW’s broken spirit, and their cowering acceptance of what Republicans call bad behavior; running the UW like a business and having an actual rainy day fund. We can’t have that. This is so pathetic, and completely unacceptable:

WKOW: University of Wisconsin System regents are set to meet with lawmakers this week to discuss rebuilding their relationships. Republican lawmakers have heaped criticism on system leaders for building a $650 million reserve while raising tuition every year. The state budget Governor Scott Walker signed in June froze tuition levels and system President Kevin Reilly resigned last month. 

Rick Santorum Proposes Conservative Indoctrination Studies in College. That's the Ticket.

This is about Rich Santorum's attack on college education. Eugene Robinson rightfully asked what parent is going to buy into Santorum's message that their kids don't need to go to college like they did. No parent would want less for their kids than what they achieved in life. This attack is nothing new. It's just a continuation.

David Horowitz has all but crawled back under his rock after failing to convince people there was a need for the "academic bill of rights." His attacks on liberals, college professors and higher education were the rantings of a lunatic. His entourage of body guards kept the latte sippers away, but also provided him the opportunity to claim to be a targeted victim of the radical left.

Now we have Rick Santorum following in Horowitz's footsteps. Here's Santorum trying to convince viewers that "conservative studies," or indoctrination, should be introduced to add balance. Does he think we're stupid?



Rachel Maddow explains:

When Rick Santorum argued recently against public education … higher ed insisting the other day that President Obama only wants to help young people go to college so they can undergo "indoctrination." In 2008, the former senator argued that Satan had succeeded in his attacks on academia.

As Kevin Drum put it, "It's commonplace for movement conservatives to believe that universities are dens of depravity and radical left indoctrination. But as far as I know, most of them don't believe that efforts to get more kids into college are motivated by a desire to destroy their faith. That's a step beyond even normal wingnut land."

My larger concern is the trajectory of Santorum's rhetoric: if access to college degrees is itself a culture-war issue, and Republicans start arguing en masse that policymakers need not prioritize higher ed as a national value, the consequences for the country and the economy could prove to be significant.

Matt Yglesias explained this morning, "[T]he fact is that America has historically been the richest country on the planet because we've invested in being the best-educated country on the planet. In recent decades, we've seen the pace slow down markedly … the emergence of a block of people so driven by resentment of college professors that they want to abandon the goal of improving American education is a disturbing trend."

Incidentally, if Santorum believes publicly-funded universities may need to start requiring "intellectual diversity" on campus, how in the world would that work? And what about students whose ideologies change during their academic careers?

Or this from CNN's LZ Granderson:

But the rest of us look at "Slick Rick's" college degree, law degree and MBA, the fact that he's sending his kids to college and owns at least six properties, and has earned millions, and wonder -- What is he talking about? Virtually every socioeconomic study looking at the intersection of income and education shows a direct correlation between the two. For Santorum to vilify higher education for political gain -- while obviously benefiting from attending universities -- is embarrassing.