Jeff Sessions Picked a Curious Time to Advocate for Free Speech

September 26, 2017
The Intercept

As debates about free speech on college campuses rage, Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday said that America’s universities are “transforming into an echo chamber of political correctness and homogeneous thought, a shelter for fragile egos.”

Speaking at Georgetown University Law School, America’s top law enforcement official took aim at so-called free speech zones, speech codes, and other forms of restrictions on campus speech. He vowed to “protect students’ free expression,” regardless of political persuasion, but did little to ease concerns about President Donald Trump’s recent criticisms of First Amendment-protected activity.

“Speech and civility codes violate what the late Justice Antonin Scalia rightly called ‘the first axiom of the First Amendment, which is that, ‘as a general rule, the state has no power to ban speech on the basis of its content,’” Sessions said, quoting the late former U.S. Supreme Court justice who graduated from Georgetown Law 60 years ago. “In this great land, the government does not get to tell you what to think or what to say.”

But Sessions works for a U.S. administration that has indeed told people what to think. Trump yesterday told the NFL what it “must respect,” just days after calling on the league to fire players who took a knee during the national anthem.

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Last modified 

September 27, 2017