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This article was originally published Million Voices.
An op-ed written by Outkick’s David Hookstead in March presented an argument against President Donald Trump’s recent call to police free speech on college campuses.
Hookstead first detailed how he voted for Trump and he’s a big fan of the second administration thus far. This is why he was “so concerned when” he saw Trump’s recent statements that “could easily be interpreted as encroaching on free speech.”
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.” — Trump wrote on TruthSocial on March 4.
Big Backlash
Along with Hookstead, a self-described Trump supporter, the comments drew hefty backlash from everyone from FIRE to the ACLU. “As FIRE knows too well from our work defending student and faculty rights under the Obama and Biden administrations, threatening schools with the loss of federal funding will result in a crackdown on lawful speech. Schools will censor first and ask questions later,” FIRE wrote in their statement. (TAKE ANOTHER POLL: Do You Think American Citizens Should Pay to Enter National & State Parks?)
“Even the most controversial political speech is protected by the First Amendment. As the Supreme Court reminds us, in America, we don’t use the law to punish those with whom we disagree. Instead, “[a]s a Nation we have chosen a different course—to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.”
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