Jeff Sessions Wants More Free Speech Unless It's For Uppity Black F'Ball Players (Or People Protesting HIM!)

Freedom? It is a worship word! You will not use it!

Attorney General ( * vomit! * ) Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III gave a great big important speech about free speech at Georgetown Law School Tuesday where he said that campuses need to stop infringing on rightwing students' free speech rights, saying the Justice Department will intervene in court cases where it believes colleges are limiting the unalienable rights of conservative speakers to say whatever they want without any criticism. Sessions denounced the presence of a "mob" at UC Berkeley when Ben Shapiro recently spoke there, with police in riot gear keeping protesters separate from rightwing supporters.

Sessions fumed that

“Freedom of thought and speech on the American campus are under attack,” he said. Universities that once were “a place of robust debate” were becoming “an echo chamber of political correctness and homogenous thought, a shelter for fragile egos.”

The Berkeley example seemed a bit odd, though, considering there were no injuries or property damage reported by Berkeley police. There was, however, some vigorous protest against Shapiro's appearance, which went forward just fine. Just as Sessions's own speech at Georgetown drew protesters who didn't smash anything, but also were not allowed inside the hall. So it almost sounds like free speech actually is happening on these college campuses, huh? Somehow, the First Amendment survived, though Sessions did worry about the health of some rightwing strawmen:

“In the end, Mr. Shapiro spoke to a packed house,” Sessions said. “And to my knowledge, no one fainted, no one was unsafe. No one needed counseling, I hope.”

Mind you, Sessions wasn't too keen on all forms of protest, especially the kinds done by F'ball players who don't love America, the Flag, or cops killing black people. He supported Donald Trump's free speech call for NFL players to be fired for kneeling during the national anthem, because mercy, it's the FLAG!

“I agree that it’s a big mistake to protest in that fashion because it weakens the commitment we have to this nation that has provided us this freedom,” Sessions added, of NFL taking a knee during the National Anthem. “I would note, of course, that the players aren’t subject to any prosecution, but if they take a provocative act they can expect to be condemned and the president has the right to condemn them.”

Sessions is at least correct that if the NFL were to punish players for protesting, the teams would be within their rights, since the First Amendment only protects against government suppression of speech. He didn't seem to see any problem, however, with the precedent of the president calling for certain people to be punished for expressing unpopular opinions -- he simply noted that "The president has free speech rights too," which is true enough, and don't you go talking about whether Trump is dividing the nation, because he's not, you commie.

As for an actual example of the kind of suppression of free speech Sessions wants the Justice Department to crack down on, there's this:  

As a start, the department filed a “statement of interest” Tuesday to back a lawsuit filed by students at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, Ga. The students say they were barred from distributing Christian literature near the school library and told to stay inside the school’s two designated “free speech zones.”

Sessions said the students were “improperly constricted” and that the Justice Department will seek to “affirm the proper parameters of free speech” at the public college, which is part of Georgia’s state university system.

“Starting today, the Department of Justice will do its part in this struggle,” Sessions said. “We will enforce federal law, defend free speech and protect students’ free expression from whatever end of the political spectrum it may come.”

Yr Wonkette is actually fine with the DOJ joining the poor oppressed Christians in this case, since designated "free speech zones" are ridiculous to start with, and as long as the Christian kids aren't bothering patrons inside the library, we say let 'em hand out their little Chick Tracts. Maybe require them to provide a handy recycling bin, though.

And it really is nice to see Sessions taking such a strong stance in favor of freedom of speech. Of course, you can't expect him to go too far with that sort of thing:

Axios reports that Sessions has long been wanting to make a big push on the burning question of free speech on campuses, since as we all know colleges are hotbeds of political correctness where no one is allowed to have a conservative position, a point that every single College Republican group loudly echoes on campus at every opportunity. The groupthink on campus is so bad that rightwingers are forced to endlessly post the same memes about liberal fascism to Twitter and to internet comment sections, because why won't the sheeple wake up, stop being snowflakes, and hide in their safe spaces, huh? Think for yourselves, Sessions says, and all the conservakids wearing khakis, polo shirts, and red baseball caps reply, "Yes! We will think for ourselves! Make America Great Again! Trump Won! He is your president! Get over it!"

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[ Daily Beast / WaPo / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette / Axios ]