Table of Contents
Louisiana governor vetoes campus free speech bill
Governor John Bel Edwards yesterday, a bill that would have better protected free speech on public college campuses in Louisiana. The bill was sent to Gov. Edwards with strong bipartisan support, passing the state鈥檚 House of Representatives 95-0 and its Senate 30-2.
The bill, sponsored by State Representative Lance Harris, was patterned on many of the best parts of the Goldwater Institute鈥檚 model legislation. It included several important provisions that would have protected campus free speech.
HB 269 would have codified the standard of peer-on-peer harassment set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education (1999) to better protect students鈥 expressive rights, while it also would have protected students from discriminatory harassment by their peers. Schools would also have been forced to abandon the use of misleadingly labeled 鈥渇ree speech zones.鈥 According to 贵滨搁贰鈥檚 most recent 鈥Spotlight on Speech Codes鈥 report, roughly 1 in 10 colleges surveyed maintain these restrictive policies.
The new bill also would have addressed a worrying growing trend: groups of people employing heckler鈥檚 vetoes on campuses to prevent controversial speakers from delivering their remarks. The bill would have avoided mandatory minimum punishments for hecklers and instead instructed each institution to create 鈥淸a] range of disciplinary sanctions for anyone under the jurisdiction of the institution who substantially and materially disrupts the function of the institution or the free expression of others.鈥
Upon vetoing the HB 269, Gov. Edwards that the bill was 鈥渁 solution in search of a problem,鈥 and 鈥渦nnecessary and overly burdensome.鈥 While there are some modest changes FIREwould have made to the bill, it鈥檚 clear that the bill was not merely a 鈥渟olution in search of a problem.鈥 To the contrary, Louisiana has six 鈥渞ed light鈥 and three 鈥測ellow light鈥 public institutions in 贵滨搁贰鈥檚 Spotlight Database. Louisiana cannot claim even a single 鈥済reen light鈥 school, meaning that tens of thousands of college students in Louisiana attend institutions that maintain unconstitutional policies.
贵滨搁贰鈥檚 is sponsoring litigation against administrators at Louisiana State University on behalf of Teresa Buchanan, a former LSU professor fired for comments made while teaching. This too shows there is a need for legislative protection of expression in Louisiana, and FIREis happy to help Louisiana legislators address this issue in the future.
FIRE is saddened that students enrolled in Louisiana鈥檚 public institutions of higher education will not enjoy strong statutory protections of their expressive rights this year. We hope to be able to report on additional legislation in the state鈥檚 next legislative session.
Recent Articles
贵滨搁贰鈥檚 award-winning Newsdesk covers the free speech news you need to stay informed.