[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 75 (Wednesday, May 1, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H2776-H2777]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REPRESSION OF FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from
Michigan (Ms. Tlaib) for 5 minutes.
Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, I am deeply concerned about the escalating
repression of First Amendment protected speech and assembly on college
campuses across our country.
To all the elected university boards and appointed presidents, it
needs to be very clear: Your students' constitutional rights don't end
when they enter your campus grounds.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record statements from the ACLU and
from Bend the Arc.
[April 26, 2024]
ACLU Urges College and University Leaders to Protect Free Speech and
Academic Freedom
New York.--In response to the anti-war protests happening
at colleges across the country, and the disturbing arrests
that have followed, the American Civil Liberties Union sent a
letter to leaders at both public and private universities.
The letter states:
``As you fashion responses to the activism of your students
(and faculty and staff), it is essential that you not
sacrifice principles of academic freedom and free speech that
are core to the educational mission of your respected
Institution.''
Authored by ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero and
National Legal Director David Cole, the letter offers
university leaders five basic guardrails to ensure freedom of
speech and academic freedom are protected on campus:
1. They must not single out particular viewpoints for
censorship, discipline, or disproportionate punishment.
2. They must protect students from targeted discriminatory
harassment and violence, but may not penalize people for
taking sides on the war in Gaza, even if expressed in deeply
offensive terms.
3. They can announce and enforce reasonable content-neutral
time, place, or manner policies on protesting activity, but
they must leave ample room for students to express
themselves. These rules must be applied consistently and
without regard to viewpoint.
4. They must recognize that armed police on campus can
endanger students and are a measure of last resort.
5. They must resist the pressures placed on them by
politicians seeking to exploit campus tensions.
The letter also informs university leaders of relevant
Supreme Court precedent:
``The Supreme Court has forcefully rejected the premise
that, `because of the acknowledged need for order, First
Amendment protections should apply with less force on college
campuses than in the community at large.' ''
The letter strongly advises university leaders to be
``cognizant of the history of law enforcement using
inappropriate and excessive force in responding to protests,
particularly against communities of color,'' and that--as
events of the past week have made abundantly clear--arresting
peaceful protestors is likely to escalate, not calm, tensions
on campus.
The letter also reiterates that violence is never an
acceptable protest tactic and that ``physically intimidating
students by blocking their movements or pursuing them
aggressively is unprotected conduct, not protected speech.''
____
[April 25, 2024]
Bend the Arc Statement on Campus Protests
As we celebrate Passover this week, we are seeing Jewish
students and faculty showing up Jewishly, joining and helping
to lead protests on college campuses across the nation. And
we have been watching with increasing concern. Concern for
Jewish safety, but also concern for our democracy. [Protest
is essential to our movement work and must be protected, and
we firmly stand against antisemitism being used as an excuse
to threaten free speech and criticism of university and U.S.
policy. To be clear, criticism of American policy towards
Israel is not inherently antisemitic.]
When protests become popular movements, they bring everyone
from everywhere, with all their experiences and talents. They
can also bring what afflicts our society, such as
antisemitism, anti-Black racism, sexism, and homophobia.
These oppressions are not reflective of the movements
themselves, though critics would have you believe that they
define them. Many have used accusations of antisemitism, real
and perceived, to attempt to discredit these protests.
The ability of Jewish students to express their Judaism,
their values, and their beliefs across a full range of
political views is essential and must be protected. We must
not erase them from this story. They are hosting Shabbat
services in tents, holding Seder, and are showing up not just
for Jewish safety, but for the safety of all people.
Jewish people have long played a role in practicing free
speech and protest on campus. These protests are part of our
democracy. We proudly remember the movements for Civil
Rights, against the Vietnam and Iraq Wars, Occupy, Black
Lives Matter, and fights against sexual violence on campus.
Unfortunately, these moments also recall the
unconstitutional, dangerous, and unnecessary policing of
these protests. We recall the images from Kent State in 1970,
when the National Guard killed four peaceful, anti-war
student protesters (three of whom were Jewish). Today,
college administrations are bowing to McCarthy-esque
congressional hearings; evicting, suspending, and arresting
Jewish and other students; and barring access to places of
worship and freedom to partake in Jewish ceremony--all in an
obvious attempt to appease the Right.
Many Jews, on campus and otherwise, are experiencing
Passover feeling a heightened fear about antisemitism. And we
see how student organizers, Jewish and non-Jewish, have
powerfully shown up against occurrences of antisemitism,
creating safety for Jewish students. Their values and
discipline in opposing antisemitism remain in stark contrast
to those who claim to fight antisemitism but instead use it
to sow division between Jews and our communities, undermine
democracy, and fulfill the goals of white nationalism.
And in this critical dialogue about the safety of Jews and
everyone in our nation, we must not allow political interests
to obscure the meaning we take away from these protests: that
U.S. policy must support safety and self-determination for
all Palestinians and Israelis, and that next year, we make
Seder in peace.
Chag Sameach.
Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, the ACLU statement says: ``As you fashion
responses to the activism of your students (and faculty and staff), it
is essential that you not sacrifice principles of academic freedom and
free speech that are core to the educational mission of your respected
institution.''
From Bend the Arc's statement: ``Protest is essential to our movement
work and must be protected, and we firmly stand against anti-Semitism
being used as an excuse to threaten free speech and criticism of
university and U.S. policy. To be clear, criticism of American policy
towards Israel is not inherently anti-Semitic.''
Mr. Speaker, dissent is a fundamental American value, from the civil
rights movement to antiwar protests to the movement for Black lives,
immigrant rights, our country has a long history of students leading
movements for change and challenging the status
[[Page H2777]]
quo that oppresses and normalizes genocide across the world.
I am deeply moved by the courageous young people in more than 100
encampments at colleges across our Nation that are demanding divestment
in support of a genocide in Gaza and apartheid Government of Israel.
I had the opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to visit an encampment at the
University of Michigan that has public programming. They put it online
for families on various issues. The day I went, they were recognizing
the anniversary of the Armenian genocide and having someone also speak
about the connectivity to the Palestinian Nakba. It was inspiring to
see these brave students across races, of all faiths and backgrounds,
standing side by side in solidarity to protest for peace. From Jummah
prayer to Shabbat, they are coming together in a way I wish my
colleagues would welcome.
Sending in militarized police forces and even snipers to stop these
students from exercising their First Amendment rights is truly
disgusting.
My colleagues are so outraged by students opposing genocide and
apartheid, but many of these same Members were completely silent last
year when we saw the dramatic increase of threats, literally death
threats on historical Black colleges and universities across the
country.
{time} 1030
This state-sanctioned violence, including the arrests and threatened
felony prosecutions of students, can only be seen as an explicit effort
to silence students and take away their First Amendment rights.
Mr. Speaker, no student--not one--should be met with academic
repercussions or police brutality on their own campuses for exercising,
peacefully, their rights to free speech and assembly.
Why is it, Mr. Speaker, that my colleagues and every headline from
mainstream media are more concerned and outraged about these protests
than they are about the over 35,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza?
Seventy percent of them are women and children.
There are no universities left in Gaza, but no outrage. Multiple mass
graves have been uncovered at several locations that Israeli forces
have recently withdrawn from. Two hundred bodies were found at al-Shifa
Hospital, literally fresh bodies found with their hands tied behind
their backs, naked.
Where is the outrage for these war crimes? This is not just me. This
is the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Our government isn't just complicit in this genocide. We are actively
participating.
Students are occupying their campuses to peacefully protest for an
end to these atrocities and for divestment in this genocide and
apartheid. They are even renaming some of the buildings after
Palestinian children who have been killed. These students should be
praised for standing up for what they believe in, not vilified, smeared
with misinformation campaigns and silence.
I call on these universities to end the repressive tactics, exercise
restraint, denounce ongoing police brutality, and stop suppressing the
very activism, academic freedom, and thoughtful debate that they seek
to inspire in their students.
Mr. Speaker, we don't want to see an apology years later. No. We want
to see action today to protect these students. We don't want to have
you all, in 10 years, praise the same students for doing what was
right. We don't want to see it. We need it now. They deserve it now.
____________________