Latest news with #SenateBill2972
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
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Bill limiting protests at public universities awaits Gov. Abbott's approval
The Brief A new bill, SB 2972, limiting protests on Texas public university campuses has passed both the Senate and House. The bill prohibits activities like using amplified sound during class, protesting in the last two weeks of the semester, and wearing masks to conceal identity. Critics, including the ACLU of Texas, argue the bill violates First Amendment rights. AUSTIN - A bill that passed through the Texas legislature last weekend would prohibit certain times and locations of protests on public university campuses. Critics worry the bill is in direct violation of the First Amendment, as well as the Texas Constitution. Senate Bill 2972 defines "expressive activities" in the same manner as the First Amendment and the Texas Constitution, directly citing those documents to include assemblies, protests, speeches, the distribution of written materials, the carrying of signs, and the circulation of petitions. Under the new bill, the following would be prohibited at Texas universities: Using devices to amplify sound during class hours while engaging in expressive activities. Engaging in expressive activities during the last two weeks of the semester. Camping or setting up tents on campus. Wearing a mask or other disguise while engaging in expressive activities. Lowering the U.S. flag with the intent to raise another flag. Engaging in expressive activities between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. Note that these are limited and expanded upon individually within the bill's text. The Senate passed the bill 21-10 on May 14. The House passed it 97-39 on May 28. What they're saying The bill's text says it may not be construed to limit freedom of speech or expression as protected by the First Amendment or Texas Constitution. Critics wonder how this is possible, saying the bill in its entirety is an imposition of prohibitions on rights defined in those texts. Caro Achar, the engagement coordinator for free speech at the ACLU of Texas, released the following statement to that point. "S.B. 2972 threatens the free expression of all Texans, regardless of political beliefs. This bill imposes broad restrictions that allow school officials to restrict how, when, and where Texans can speak on campus — undermining the First Amendment rights of students, faculty, staff, and the general public." Dig deeper The new bill comes on the heels of recent major protests on Texas university campuses, largely related to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, as well as developments with mass deportations. At one UT Austin protest in April 2024, 79 pro-Palestine protesters were taken into custody. The university was later found to have violated several institutional rules when handling the incident. Feds to screen social media of migrants, foreign students for antisemitic activity Columbia must notify students before handing records to Congress amid antisemitism probe ICE detains U of M student at Twin Cities campus, officials say What's next SB 2972 now awaits Gov. Greg Abbott's signature. According to the ACLU, he is expected to sign it into law. If he neither signs nor vetoes the bill, it will become law without his action. The Source Information in this article comes from Texas Legislature Online, the ACLU of Texas and previous coverage by FOX 7.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
With added protections, Texas House backs 'Campus Protection Act' to regulate free speech
Free speech on college campuses is poised to face new constraints after the Texas House gave preliminary approval to Senate Bill 2972, which will limit students' and employees' permitted expression on campus. The proposal reverses 2019 protections that established common outdoor areas of a higher education campus as traditional public forums. With an 111-27 vote, the House late Tuesday night overwhelmingly approved an amended Senate Bill 2972, dubbed the "Campus Protection Act," which included more free speech protections compared with the Senate's original version. Donning a circular state of Texas clock to highlight the few final hours the House had to pass bills on second reading, Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican who sponsored the bill, stood behind Rep. Chris Turner to support the Democratic member from Grand Prairie in introducing an amendment to "make sure that our campuses must provide a public forum for free speech" and that nothing in the proposal would contradict the U.S. or Texas constitutions. Leach also issued an amendment clarifying that amplified sound is only prohibited "when there's an intent to intimidate others or to interfere with campus operations," university leadership or police. The chamber approved both amendments. "I'm taking what could have been a three- or four-hour debate and it's going to be less than five minutes," Leach said as the House approached its 12th hour on the floor. "We've been working collaboratively with many of you here in the body, with our Senate counterparts, with the leadership at our university systems across the state, to guarantee the rights of students and faculty to gather peaceably on our college campuses." Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, authored SB 2972 to tighten free speech rules on college campuses after pro-Palestinian protests erupted in universities across the country, including at several campuses in Texas, last year calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war. More than 150 people were arrested at Texas universities in April 2024 across several pro-Palestinian protests, which organizers and demonstrators asserted were peaceful and lawful. University administrators and lawmakers, however, have accused protesters of being disruptive and antisemitic. In Austin, the Travis County attorney's office dropped all criminal trespassing charges for demonstrators who were arrested during the April 24 and April 29 protests at the University of Texas. At least five students who were arrested have sued UT over alleged violations of their First Amendment rights. "While the world watched Columbia, Harvard and other campuses across the country taken hostage by pro-terrorist mobs last year, Texas stood firm. UT allowed protest, not anarchy," Creighton said in a statement to the American-Statesman on Saturday about the bill. "No First Amendment rights were infringed—and they never will be." Creighton's bill removes a provision authored six years ago that established universities as traditional public forums for everyone regardless of viewpoint — a conservative priority that he co-authored. State Republicans enthusiastically backed SB 18 in 2019, which they said protected speech at a time when campuses were wary of controversial conservative voices coming to campus. Rights advocacy groups from across the political spectrum — from the national chapter of Young Americans for Liberty to the ACLU of Texas and the local chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations — opposed the bill's potential limit on free speech. "The context of the (SB 18) bill is impossible to extricate from the protections, but it yielded a benefit to all Texans," Caro Achar, engagement coordinator at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said in an interview before the House amendments. "What's difficult about SB 2972 is that it feels more and more that the protections that were extended for all Texans' free speech rights and protest rights were a matter of convenience and viewpoint, and not inherently because they are valued rights, because now we're seeing a bill as the political context around who is being invited to campus or who is protesting on campus has potentially shifted." Creighton denied that SB 2972 contrasts the 2019 law, saying it builds on the measure by protecting free speech that's peaceful while maintaining "safety and order" and empowering each institution to use "the local tools needed to preserve both free expression and the educational mission." "Both laws protect the First Amendment rights of students, faculty and staff," Creighton said. "SB 2972 ensures that speech stays free, protest stays peaceful, and chaos never takes hold." Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, who authored SB 18 in 2019, voted for Creighton's SB 2972 despite it revoking the public forum protection her bill established. She did not respond to Statesman requests for comment on her vote, but in a 2019 news release about SB 18, she said "colleges and universities should provide the opportunity for students to hear others' points of view in a free and unrestrained manner." Turner said on the House floor that his amendment reinstates critical protections into SB 2972, such as a requirement that institutions must have a public forum for speech. Several Democrats, including Rep. Donna Howard of Austin and Rep. Aicha Davis of Dallas, who are both on the Higher Education Subcommittee, voted for the amended version of the bill. If the House gives the bill final passage, the Senate will have to review the changes before it is sent to the governor. "This is how we protect student safety, defend our institutions, and safeguard freedom for generations to come," Creighton said. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas House backs limits to free speech at universities
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Bill limiting protests at public universities gets initial Texas House approval
The Texas House on Tuesday gave initial approval to a bill that would restrict protesting on college campuses. Republicans who support Senate Bill 2972 say it will prevent disruption and unsafe behavior seen during the pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year. Critics say the measure contradicts previous conservative efforts to protect free speech rights on Texas campuses and is unconstitutional. The measure, which passed 111-27 in a preliminary House vote, would give university systems' governing boards the power to limit where protests can take place on campus. Under the new legislation, students and staff would not be allowed to use microphones or any other device to amplify sound while protesting during class hours if they are trying to intimidate others or interfere with campus operations, a university employee or a peace officer doing their job. The bill prohibits them from protesting within 300 feet of residences overnight. Students would also be barred from erecting encampments, taking down an institution's U.S. flag to put up another nation's or organization's banner and wearing disguises to avoid being identified while protesting or to intimidate others. Finally, anyone at a campus protest would be required to present a valid ID when asked by a university official. Hours before a key legislative deadline Tuesday, the House amended the bill to be less restrictive than the version passed by the Senate earlier this month. The Senate's version would have largely prohibited protesting at all overnight and wearing masks or facial coverings at protests, which was flagged as a necessity for people who are immunocompromised. The bill now heads back to the Senate, which must agree with the House's changes or ask that their differences be ironed out behind closed doors. Prior to the vote Tuesday evening, Tyler Coward, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said in an interview with the Texas Tribune that prohibiting overnight protests is 'flatly unconstitutional.' He also said the bill's definitions of expressive activity were too broad. 'Under this bill, the university would be required to ask a student to take off a MAGA hat if they were wearing it at 10:15pm or a Bernie Sanders shirt because that is political, that is expressive activity,' he said. Those definitions were struck by an amendment by Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, who worked with House Sponsor, Jeff Leach, R-Plano, on the legislation. In 2019, the Legislature passed a law requiring colleges and universities to ensure that all outdoor common areas of campus can be used to stage a protest, as long as demonstrators don't break the law or disrupt school activities. That measure came after Texas A&M leaders canceled a white nationalist rally and Texas Southern University scrapped a planned speech by Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park. Both happened in 2017. Texas A&M said it canceled the event due to safety concerns while TSU said it canceled Cain's speech because it was organized by an unregistered student group. 'Our college students, our future leaders, they should be exposed to all ideas, I don't care how liberal they are or how conservative they are,' Sen. Joan Huffman said at the time. Huffman, a Houston Republican who authored that 2019 law, voted earlier this month in favor of the new limits on protests, citing similar reasons mentioned by other supporters. She said the new measure doesn't undermine the former one. 'Both bills work to ensure that our academic environments remain spaces for open dialogue and learning, fostering an atmosphere where diverse perspectives can thrive while maintaining safety,' Huffman said in a statement to The Tribune. During a public hearing on April 16, several University of Texas at Austin students testified against the new legislation. UT-Austin was the site of massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year. Police arrested more than 100 people. Gov. Greg Abbott and others applauded the law enforcement response amid reports that Jewish students were suffering from a sharp rise in antisemitism. Critics have said the arrests were an affront to protesters' free speech rights and that state leaders have broadly conflated criticism of Israel with antisemitism. 'This bill scares me because the University of Texas has already demonstrated hostility towards free speech when they sent police to arrest students peacefully protesting last spring,' said Gwynn Marotta, third-year law student. 'Please do not give them the tools to further restrict our speech.' The Senate passed the new legislation 21-10 without debate on May 14. Students did not get another chance to testify against the measure when the House Higher Education Committee held a last-minute meeting on May 19 and voted to forward it to the full chamber. Caro Achar, engagement coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, called it an alarming and ironic move that reinforced why the right to protest must be protected. 'People can't be expected to go through 'proper' routes when those routes are quietly closed,' Achar said. Critics also raised concerns about how police could know if students were wearing masks for some ill intent. Achar and Coward suspected police would assume everyone was. They pointed out that courts have found that the First Amendment protects anonymous speech. They said America has a long history of it (ie. the letters from Publius in support of the Constitution). At least one state, Arizona, has passed a law banning overnight encampments on college campuses in reaction to last year's pro-Palestinian demonstrations. And several universities have imposed their own limits on protesting. Columbia University banned masks after the Trump administration demanded it. Disclosure: Texas Southern University - Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After college students protested Israel-Hamas war, Texas Senate votes to restrict time, place and manner of future events
The Texas Senate on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a bill that would restrict protesting on college campuses in reaction to the pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year. The bill's author, Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, said he wants to prevent disruption and unsafe behavior, but opponents have said it contradicts the Legislature's previous commitment to campus free speech, championed by conservative lawmakers six years ago. Senate Bill 2972 would give university systems' governing boards the power to limit where protests can take place on campus and more tools to police them. Lawmakers voted 21-10 to advance the bill without debate. Under the legislation, students and staff would not be allowed to use microphones or any other device to amplify sound while protesting during class hours. The bill largely prohibits them from protesting at all overnight and during the last two weeks of a semester. They'd also be barred from erecting encampments, taking down an institution's U.S. flag to put up another nation's or organization's and wearing masks, facial coverings or other disguises to avoid being identified while protesting or to intimidate others. Finally, students and university employees at a protest would be required to present a valid ID when asked by law enforcement. In 2019, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 18, which required colleges and universities to ensure that all outdoor common areas of campus were traditional public forums. This meant anyone could protest there as long as they weren't breaking the law or disrupting the function of the college or university. SB 18 also said any restrictions institutions placed on protesting had to be 'narrowly tailored to serve a significant institutional interest.' SB 2972 would walk those provisions back, allowing governing boards to designate which areas on campus are traditional public forums and allowing them to restrict protests in these areas as long as it is 'reasonable in light of the purpose of the area.' Cate Byrne, a third-year law student at the University of Texas at Austin, said during a Senate K-16 Education Hearing last month that because the bill doesn't define what is 'reasonable,' it could lead to administrators discriminating against protesters based on their viewpoint. Other current and former UT-Austin students pointed out that some protesters must wear masks because they are immunocompromised and that this legislation would also impede conservative speech — which lawmakers sought to protect when they passed SB 18 in 2019. They pointed out that candlelight vigils for the unborn would not be allowed under this proposal because they would occur at night, for example. 'These restrictions create an impossible situation,' said Sameeha Rizvi, Texas policy and advocacy coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations and a UT-Austin graduate. 'Protest silently during the daytime or don't protest at all after hours. Whether students are advocating for human rights or religious freedom, all speech across the political spectrum will be constrained.' Following Hama's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, students across the country demanded their universities divest from Israel or manufacturers supplying Israel with weapons in its strikes on Gaza. Groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the Hillel International also reported a sharp uptick in antisemitic incidents on campus, which lawmakers vowed to address this session. When students protested at UT-Austin, administrators called in armed state troopers, who arrested more than a hundred people over several days. Several colleges across the country have since imposed limits on protesting that clamped down on pro-Palestinian encampments. The Indiana University board of trustees adopted a policy similar to the bill the Texas Legislature is considering that prohibits camping unless it is part of a university-approved event, protesting overnight and amplified noise that 'materially or substantially' disrupts university life. The Trump administration has also demanded that Columbia and Harvard universities ban masks at campus protests. Columbia agreed. The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
