Individual Liberty Archives - Page 17 of 24 - Mississippi Center for Public Policy

Senate Bill 2050, sponsored by Sen. Angela Hill, would ensure free speech on college campuses by prohibiting a state university or community college from implementing a policy that violates freedom of speech, religion, or association.

If the governor receives notice that a public university has such a policy, they shall notify the university and that school would have 30 days to show compliance before the state fiscal officer would withhold state funds.

This, unfortunately, is needed in Mississippi.

A former student at Jones County Junior College is suing the school for infringing on his free speech rights, and the U.S. Department of Justice is supporting his suit.

Michael Brown was stopped twice by campus police for trying to inform students about the political club he was involved with, Young Americans for Liberty, without prior authorization from the school’s administration, according to the complaint filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Brown was stopped by campus officials early last year about an inflatable beach ball, known as a “free speech ball,” upon which students could write messages of their choice and again in the spring for polling students about marijuana legalization.

An administrator told YAL that they weren’t permitted on campus since they hadn’t sought permission from the college.

The current regulations at JCJC require at least three days’ notice to administrators before “gathering for any purpose.” The student handbook also puts even more restrictions on college-connected student organizations, which must schedule their events through the vice president of student affairs. The school administration also reserves the right, according to the handbook, to not schedule a speaker or an activity.

The DOJ statement says that these restrictions operate as a prior restraint on student speech and contain no exception for individuals or small groups, and grant school officials unbridled discretion to determine about what students may speak.

MCPP has reviewed this legislation and finds that it is aligned with our principles and therefore should be supported.

Read the bill here.

Track the status of this bill and all bills in our legislative tracker.

A former student at Jones County Junior College is suing the school for infringing on his free speech rights. And the U.S. Department of Justice is coming to his defense.

Michael Brown, who is now a student at the University of Southern Mississippi, was stopped twice by campus police for trying to inform students about the political club he was involved with, Young Americans for Liberty, without prior authorization from the school’s administration, according to the complaint filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

An administrator told YAL that they weren’t permitted on campus since they hadn’t sought permission from the college.

According to Brown, he and another student held up a sign polling students on marijuana. Campus police took him and another student to their office after telling a friend, who wasn’t a student, to leave. Campus officers later escorted the friend off campus.

The DOJ has now issued what is known as a statement of interest.

The DOJ statement compared the school’s regulations regarding public speech from their handbook to the tyrannical state of Oceania in George Orwell’s “1984.” The statement also says the college has an obligation to comply with the First Amendment.

The current regulations require at least three days’ notice to administrators before “gathering for any purpose.” The student handbook also puts even more restrictions on college-connected student organizations, which must schedule their events through the vice president of student affairs. The school administration also reserves the right, according to the handbook, to not schedule a speaker or an activity.

The statement says that these restrictions operate as a prior restraint on student speech and contain no exception for individuals or small groups, and grant school officials unbridled discretion to determine about what students may speak.

The DOJ urges JCJC to revisit and revise its speech policies. In May, FIRE wrote a letter to Jones Count Junior College President Jesse Smith offering to help the community college bring its policies into compliance with the First Amendment. The school didn’t respond to the letter.

This, however, is not the first – or even the most recent – instance of college campuses in Mississippi restricting free speech.

This fall, the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at Ole Miss rescinded an invitation of Elisha Krauss, a conservative commentator, days before she was scheduled to appear. The event was hosted by Young America’s Foundation. The Center is housed in the same building as the School of Journalism and New Media but is a separate organization.

The Overby Center claimed they do not allow ideological speakers, yet with a 2019 lineup that included a former Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate and partisan journalists from the New York Times and Washington Post (among others), the definition of “ideological” seems to fluctuate based on how much you may agree with certain speech.

Krauss is certainly someone who has a conservative background, but also someone who has spent considerable time in the larger world of journalism. Someone who would have been a good balance to many of the other speakers allowed to convey their thoughts and ideas at the Overby Center.

Fortunately, the story in Oxford ended on a positive note. The administration invited Krauss back. And she gave a well-received speech, naturally, regarding free speech on college campuses.

But whether it’s a junior college or the oldest public university in the state, we shouldn’t be having these fights in Mississippi. Free speech should be welcomed and encouraged on every college campus in the state, regardless of whether you like the speech or not. And it shouldn’t take a lawsuit or an administrator overriding one or two decision makers.

To date, 14 states, including every state that borders Mississippi, have passed legislation to protect campus free speech and ensure different voices can be heard. The Magnolia State has the opportunity to join this growing trend in 2020.

The U.S. Department of Justice is coming out in support of a former Jones County Junior College student who is suing the school for infringing on his free speech rights.

The DOJ issued a statement of interest in the case of J. Michael Brown, a former JCJC student at the school who is now at the University of Southern Mississippi.

It says that college campuses shouldn’t be mini police states and that the college shouldn’t wait for a court to steamroll it into compliance, but comply voluntarily with the First Amendment.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) filed a complaint in U.S. District Court on September 3. The complaint says that Brown was stopped twice by campus police for trying to inform students about the political club he was involved, Young Americans for Liberty, without prior authorization from the school’s administration.

The DOJ statement compared the school’s regulations regarding public speech from their handbook to the tyrannical state of Oceania in the George Orwell’s “1984.” The statement also says the college has an obligation to comply with the First Amendment.

These regulations requires at least three days’ notice to administrators before “gathering for any purpose.” The student handbook also puts even more restrictions on college-connected student organizations, which must schedule their events through the vice president of student affairs. The school administration also reserves the right, according to the handbook, to not schedule a speaker or an activity.

The statement says that these restrictions operate as a prior restraint on student speech and contain no exception for individuals or small group and grant school officials unbridled discretion to determine what students may speak and about what they may speak.

Brown was stopped by campus officials twice, once in February about an inflatable beach ball, known as a “free speech ball,” upon which students could write messages of their choice and the second in April for polling students about marijuana legalization.

An administrator told YAL that they weren’t permitted on campus since they hadn’t sought permission from the college.

According to Brown, he and another student held up a sign polling students on marijuana. Campus police took him and another student to their office after telling a friend who wasn’t a student to leave and escorted off campus.

The lawsuit seeks declaratory judgement to strike the free speech restraints from the student handbook, a permanent injunction against the school to restrain their enforcement of unconstitutional policies and practices, monetary damages and attorneys’ fees.

Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, Petition. These are the constitutional rights engraved on the entrance to the Overby Center for Southern Politics and Journalism.

This is a rather ironic inscription for a building which just last week prohibited Daily Wire contributor Elisha Krauss from speaking on behalf of a University chapter of Young America’s Foundation.

Blocking the event days before it was scheduled, the School of Journalism and New Media cited an unlisted regulation that prohibited “partisan” figures from speaking at the center.

Following an outcry by conservative student activists and an intervention by Chancellor Glenn Boyce to overrule the initial decision, Krauss will be making her debut on the Ole Miss campus tonight; this time at the newly renovated Student Union.

While the idea that censoring a career journalist who once served as a senior producer to The Sean Hannity Show and a co-host to the Ben Shapiro Show may feel antithetical to the mission of a journalism school; if you were to understand the current political climate at Ole Miss this would all seem as right as rain.

These days at Ole Miss, the academic class is evangelical in their pursuit of progressive values; seeking to censor, harass, and nullify the opinions of those students who still carry with them main street values.

While Boyce deserves credit for reversing the decision of the journalism school, there still is work to be done in promoting free speech on campus as well as addressing institutional biases in departments.

Maybe that will all start with Krauss reminding Ole Miss the meaning of those five words inscribed on the walls of the Overby Center.

A minor controversy erupted at Ole Miss last night when news began to spread that the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics had rescinded the invitation of Elisha Krauss. The administration then fired back saying this was a unilateral decision and welcomed Krauss to campus.

Krauss is a conservative commentator, writer, and podcaster. She is a host and contributor at Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire. Krauss previously hosted a morning show in Los Angeles with Shapiro for four years and produced the syndicated Sean Hannity Radio Show for seven years. She has also worked with Truth Revolt, PragerU, and ran a congressional campaign. She certainly has a conservative background, but also someone who has spent considerable time in the larger world of journalism.

The event was hosted by Young America’s Foundation.

According to the Overby Center, they do not allow “ideological” speakers at the Overby Center. Without passing judgments, you can review their spring 2019 schedule and decide for yourself if you find any of those speakers to be ideological.

My guess is if there is someone you agree with, they are not ideological. If you don’t agree, they are definitely ideological. That is how our brains work. And why we shouldn’t have arbitrary rules, particularly unwritten rules.

But it’s more than just that. Why is a school that has journalism in its name rejecting any speaker based on ideology, even if it is true that they have also turned down liberals? Shouldn’t this be the one place, at a minimum, where free speech is encouraged and debate is welcomed? Is this not what we are teaching young journalism students?

Shouldn’t we want as many different opinions as we can find, even if we disagree with what the speaker is saying? Would that not be better for everyone?

We can go on forever about why we must defend free speech, something that has gone out of fashion with a large segment of our society. But when you do that, you also no longer have to make personal judgments on who is or isn’t ideological.

At the end of the day, Ole Miss made the right call in overruling the decision of a few. It just should have never come to that.

Note: The original story said the Ole Miss School of Journalism and New Media cancelled the event when it was the Overby Center.

In this episode of Unlicensed, we talk about the core principle of individual liberty, and why the state has an apparent interest in restricting our liberty so often.

We start with The Sandlot and then talk about eyebrow threading, abortion protests, “fake” meat, vaping, hemp, Airbnb, and more.

It is not the responsibility of the government to protect you from yourself. We as citizens have given government too much authority, and that isn’t a good thing.

Just look at the new meat-labeling regulations for unsuspecting consumers.

One of the two comments the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce received concerning the regulations was from a rancher in Starkville. They are worried people would be unable to read the labels of meatless products because they are too close to traditional meat products.

“Kroger has marketed and is labeling the product in a way that a consumer could be in a hurry, and grab that product since it is available in the meat department, where in fact, it is not real meat. They even went so far as to place (it) next to the other ground beef and prepattied hamburger products,” the comment noted.

It would take that busy person all of ten seconds to read the label.

Government is not here to read for you, and we shouldn’t expect it to. It is unfortunate than any citizen thinks this is the job of government.

While MDAC might be on the hunt for fake meat, the debate over the term “fake meat” and plant-based alternatives misses a crucial point. Plant-based companies want you to know what they are selling is not actually meat. Their consumers are specifically looking for this product and they generally pay more for it.

There is not some conspiracy at play here. This would actually be a terrible conspiracy, if that’s what marketers were trying to pull off.

Rather, consumer habits are shifting. If consumers were not interested in plant-based alternatives, these options would not be on our shelves. Because private companies – whether it’s Kroger, Walmart, Whole Foods, or any other grocery store – need to do one thing above all to stay in business: sell products that consumers want, at a profit.

If there wasn’t interest, a Whole Foods would not have opened in Jackson. Plant-based options would not be available at Kroger. Subway would not have chosen Mississippi as one of a handful of states for a vegan meatball test. Burger King would not have launched the Impossible Burger.

This debate might be over veggie burgers, but this is just one example of the government in Mississippi trying to make decisions for individuals. And at the end of the day, it will just be one of 117,000 regulations on the books in Mississippi. Can’t we just try to be more free and let the voluntary exchange between consumers and producers happen without the government trying to intervene?

This is symbolic of a larger problem we have here in the Magnolia State. We don’t trust the free market and consumer choice. The sooner we do, the better off we’ll all be.

America has a poor record of accomplishment when it comes to blanket government prohibitions, yet that doesn’t mean lawmakers will use history as a guide in future decisions. The latest example: vaping.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has issued an executive order banning e-cigarettes. Michigan residents will have a similar ban in a couple weeks courtesy of executive action. And in Mississippi, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Hood has called for a ban on vaping devices after reports that a woman’s death in Monroe county may have been linked to vaping.

According to a Center for Disease Control and Prevention report, 530 people have been hospitalized with what is now known as Vaping Associated Pulmonary Illness, or VAPI. Three cases have been reported in Mississippi. Sadly, nine deaths have been reported nationally.

Therefore, we are told we must ban vaping and e-cigarettes. This would just be another example of unintended consequences due to the need to “do something” rather than looking at the entirety of the situation.

First, the potential bans ignore the fact that e-cigarettes have proven to help tobacco smokers quit. Since 2007, these products have helped an estimated three million Americans quit smoking and a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that e-cigarettes and vaping devices were “twice as effective as nicotine replacement at helping smokers quit.”

The Royal College of Physicians proclaimed in 2016, “in the interests of public health it is important to promote the use of e-cigarettes, NRT (Nicotine Replacement Therapy), and other non-tobacco nicotine products as widely as possible as a substitute for smoking in the UK.” We can presume that would apply in the United States as well.

And there is a cost savings benefit from current smokers switching to the replacement devices. A 2017 study by R Street Institute found that taxpayers could save $2.8 billion in Medicaid costs per one percent of enrollees over 25 years if users switched from combustible cigarettes.

A ban also ignores the question of where current users, particularly the teen vapers lawmakers are particularly interested in saving, would turn. After all, teen vaping is surging.

Yet, sales of e-cigarettes have been prohibited to those under 18 since 2016, so minors are already turning to the black-market. That should be our first clue that bans don’t work. Because the black market is the problem, as it usually is. So far, the overwhelming evidence is the deaths and illnesses related to vaping were the result of black-market substances, such as THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, cannabis wax and oil, and bootlegged cartridges using vitamin E. Not the products adults are legally purchasing today.

So, because teens, who are already prohibited from purchasing these products, have resorted to the black market, we must ban adults from being able to purchase these products, at least when it comes to the fruit and candy flavors that most prefer (whether we are talking about teens or adults trying to kick the cigarette habit). This will only lead to a larger black market, and more illnesses, and more deaths. All the things those in favor of banning the products seemingly are trying to prevent. Or maybe it will just push more users back to tobacco products, which, coincidently, are at an all-time low among minors.

We’ve played the prohibition game before. It doesn’t end well. During alcohol prohibition, individuals made their own liquor that was often much more dangerous than what you could legally buy prior to prohibition. Today, many people roll their own cigarettes in locales that have absurdly high taxes. Again, these are often more dangerous as you can get more nicotine by leaving out a filter.

And when it comes to vaping, teens can turn to YouTube for do-it-yourself videos on raising nicotine levels. This won’t change if and when any of these proposals to regulate or eliminate vaping or e-cigarettes becomes law.

The bans won’t provide an alternative to current cigarette smokers, nor will they stop teens from vaping. Instead, they will only increase lawlessness. Hopefully policymakers will review the full situation before making hasty decisions that sound good to their political ears.

A former Jones County Junior College student is suing the school for twice infringing his First Amendment rights to free speech.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) filed a complaint in U.S. District Court Tuesday on behalf of J. Michael Brown, a former student at the school who is now at the University of Southern Mississippi.

The complaint says that Brown was stopped twice by campus police for trying to inform students about the political club he was involved, Young Americans for Liberty, without prior authorization from the school’s administration.

An administrator told YAL that they weren’t permitted on campus since they hadn’t sought permission from the college.

According to Brown, he and another student held up a sign polling students on recreational marijuana. Campus police took him and another student to their office after telling a friend who wasn’t a student to leave and escorted off campus.

“Some people get in trouble for smoking weed, but at Jones College, I got in trouble just for trying to talk about it,” Brown said in a statement. “College is for cultivating thought and learning and encouraging civil discourse with your peers. That's not what's happening at Jones College.”

The school’s student handbook requires at least three days’ notice to administrators before “gathering for any purpose.” The student handbook also puts even more restrictions on college-connected student organizations, which must schedule their events through the vice president of student affairs. The school administration also reserves the right, according to the handbook, to not schedule a speaker or an activity.

In May, FIRE wrote a letter to Jones Count Junior College President Jesse Smith offering to help the community college bring its policies into compliance with the First Amendment. The school didn’t respond to the letter.

Marieke Tuthill Beck-Coon, FIRE’s director of litigation, said in a statement that the school had a chance to do the right thing.

“Instead, its leaders ignored their responsibility to uphold the First Amendment,” Beck-Coon said. “Now the college has to answer for its censorship in federal court.”

Cody Gibson of Gibson & Mullennix is assisting FIRE with the case as local co-counsel.