Nine years ago, there came Barack Obama. Soon after, there came one Eric Holder, with the title of Attorney General, head of the Justice Department. Holder, with the power of indictment and himself should have been indicted (remember Fast and Furious among others) was followed by one Loretta Lynch, she with the title of Attorney General. ATTORNEYS GENERAL in title only.
In reality, Holder and Lynch were merely foils for Barack Hussein Obama, political to the core. The supposed objectivity of the Department of Justice went South, so they say, and justice from that department was often denied or never pursued.
Then from the South came former Senator Jeff Sessions from the great State of Alabama. Sessions was appointed Attorney General by President Donald John Trump and eight years after Eric Holder, a real Attorney General took office. And the Justice Department, politically driven and even corrupted top to bottom was transformed into a department truly and constitutionally in the pursuit of justice.
Early on in the Trump Administration, Democrats, furious at the election of Trump thought they had found a scandal, accusing Russia of meddling with our 2016 Presidential Elections and in fact working in devious ways to secure the election of Trump. Democrats, the liberals, progressives and radicals demanded an investigation and a special prosecutor, also demanding that Attorney General Sessions recuse himself and appoint a so-called objective special prosecutor and investigator. Sessions bowed to that liberal pressure, recused himself which brought on the ire of President Trump, even to the point where Trump had considered replacing Sessions. But he never did and that for now was indeed the right move for Trump to make, or rather not make. Sessions is the right man to pursue what is right and just and for now, the great State of Alabama should be proud that one of their very own is the leader of the American Justice Department. We the people now have a REAL Attorney General.
Perhaps one of the most important issues which Sessions and the DOJ must deal with is:
FREE SPEECH
Especially on college and university campuses. On those campuses, the search for truth has suffered, as one writer so well said, with the imposition of truth by censors replacing it. In the various areas and zones of our culture where objectivity, free-thinking and a search for truth should thrive, there is now radical censorship in so many cases and the stifling of speech by universities and college administrators they deem offensive or hate speech. These often liberal and radically-run colleges have indeed stifled the search for truth and each day impose TRUTH BY CENSORS, their very own truth.
One survey of 450 American colleges and universities found that one-third of those public schools surveyed which of course are subject to the First Amendment and Freedom of Speech had WRITTEN POLICIES banning disfavored speech. These so-called objective education entities had taken it upon themselves to determine what speech was correct, politically correct and favored and all other speech contrary to these newly set standards was banned, barred or allowed only in carefully regulated zones of the university. Anything these educational elites deemed as offensive, anything at all was banned and disallowed with the so-called objective of protecting the sensitivities of easily influenceable students who might suffer some severe emotional and sensitivity reaction to the so-called offensive speech. Those policies were strictly enforced and into being came the nefarious:
FREE SPEECH ZONES
In short, whatever you may believe which may be different from the truth panels of the universities should be kept to yourself, disallowed on campuses generally and confined to certain, very small areas, free speech zone areas of college campuses. No matter that it was a direct violation of the Constitution and especially the First Amendment regarding free speech, the imposition of truth by censors, college censors grew aggressively and unconstitutionally. And a minimum of 1 in 10 educational institutions did in fact have those free speech zones in small or out of the way areas on campus. It should be shocking to every American that our educational institutions have been taken over by speech dictators and the search for truth dealt a lethal blow.
Enter Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions and the Department of Justice challenged a Georgia college regarding the school’s strict limits on where and how students can express themselves. Sessions warned the college and the nation that freedom of thought and speech are under attack on college campuses and he called on university officials to boldly and unequivocally defend expression of ideas rather than stifle them. Sessions warned Gwinnett College in Georgia and all other universities that the American university was once the center of academic freedom, a place of robust debate, a forum for the competition of ideas. In a speech at Georgetown Law School, Sessions warned that colleges and universities are transforming into an ECHO CHAMBER OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS AND HOMOGENEOUS THOUGHT:
“A shelter for fragile egos.”
The Department of Justice intervened in a case by a Christian student at Gwinnett College in Georgia who was confined by the college to a free speech zone to express his religious-Christian beliefs. And, even then, this student would be required to get advance approval for anything he would say. And more, this student was forbidden to distribute flyers about his Christian faith unless he did so in one of the schools two free speech expression areas but again, only with advance college approval.
That led Sessions and the Justice Department to file a:
STATEMENT OF INTEREST
In the case which allows government attorneys to weigh in on legal matters presented without being a party to the lawsuit. Not only, said Sessions, were the speech policies unconstitutional, but such college policies established what is now called:
THE HECKLERS VETO
Which actually allowed students through the means of heckling to shutdown speakers with riotous protests, and even in some cases violent means in order to protect their sensitivities against offensive speech. The hecklers, rather than free speech, were actually encouraged by Gwinnett College to shut down the offensive speech rather than to encourage free and different speech. You can be certain this case will find its way to the United States Supreme Court. It has to, for there exists now one of the most critical threats to our Constitutional way of life and our First Amendment freedoms which if carried out could well mean the end of First Amendment freedoms on college campuses. Make it happen, Attorney General Sessions, make it happen.
The University of Florida had to spend $600,000 in security costs and police protection in order to allow a speech by an individual who was conservative. The University of California Berkeley spend $800,000 to provide security for an appearance by a conservative speaker who was only allowed to speak for some 15 minutes before mobs of noisy protesters cut him off. In short, if any speaker differs from the radical, progressive philosophies of these liberal universities, incredible security costs would be involved and the possibility for violence increased. Does that not, to you, seem incredible in the United States of America? It does to me, and I am deeply concerned for that precious freedom. Gwinnett College Georgia has actually determined that a testimony of the Christian faith in both written and verbal word is offensive, even hate speech and must be confined and curtailed to tiny free speech zones and never beyond that. Are you listening Christians, are you watching what has happened to the First Amendment and the attack on the Christian faith, are you listening?
Attorney General Sessions has said that the intervention by the DOJ is just the beginning, and that the Justice Department intends to file STATEMENTS OF INTEREST in other college free speech cases. Good news, Mr. Sessions. Go for it and make it happen.
And said Sessions:
“A national recommitment to free speech on campus and to ensuring First Amendment rights is long overdue.”
Is it ever. Speech seems to be prohibited by these radical administrations even if there is the slightest threat that such speech will be met with protest or hurt sensitivities, which can then trigger the so-called hecklers veto which would effectively be the end of the offensive speech and the speaker speaking it. And, it is well to remember that this unconstitutional suppression of speech is occurring on more than one in ten United States colleges and universities which have established free speech zones and policies and many more, hundreds more are considering these very same policies for their colleges. But you can be sure that the Justice Department intervention will indeed force universities to take a hard look at free speech zones for fear that their university may be the next target of a lawsuit and the intervention of the Justice Department (FILING OF A STATEMENT OF INTEREST) which would accelerate the litigation. Not only that, but federal funding for education could well be involved at some point with serious financial hurt to these radical universities and their progressive-liberal administrators. It is really good to see a real Attorney General at work, is it not my fellow Americans?
So, colleges and universities should get the message that the Justice Department will not tolerate those restrictive policies, nor the hecklers veto shutting down free speech which sends the message that the college favors the rights of hecklers over the rights of speakers and free speech.
And yet another example. At University California Berkeley, perhaps one of the most radical campuses in America, one Ben Shapiro, a 33 year old Harvard trained lawyer was invited to speak. Shapiro, Jewish, was targeted by anti-Semites for his Jewish faith and for his open stance against hate speech whether coming from the left or the right. UC Berkeley spent $600,000 in security costs in order that Shapiro could speak on campus, which he did before a packed house and for once on this radical campus, a breath of free speech air permeated the campus. At the end of the speech, one writer said the following:
“And to my knowledge, no one fainted, no one was unsafe, and I certainly hope no one needed counseling.”
The hecklers were unable to veto Shapiro and his speech and Berkeley was far better for it.
Our founding fathers as they crafted the Bill of Rights taught us that reason and knowledge produced the closest approximation to truth. And, from truth should arise justice. But the application of reason requires discourse and disagreement, and frequently argumentation.
So, reasoned the founders, that is why the free speech guarantee in the First Amendment also permeates our institutions, our traditions and in fact all of our Constitution. All of our rights are predicated upon:
FREE SPEECH
So, my fellow Americans, a national recommitment from all of us, WE THE PEOPLE to free speech on campus is long overdue. And our aggressive action to protect and defend First Amendment rights is also long overdue. And, the intervention of the Department of Justice in these matters whether actual litigation or STATEMENTS OF INTEREST is long overdue. Attorney General Sessions has promised that the Justice Department will step up, intervene and be proactive in accomplishing this recommitment totally abandoned by Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. Good for you, Mr. Sessions, good for you finally acting as a real Attorney General.
This very year, we the people celebrated the 230th anniversary of the Constitution. Those precious freedoms in our 1787 Constitution given to us by our founding fathers are the very best assets of our America. Attorney General Sessions from the great State of Alabama has reminded us that these freedoms were:
BOUGHT WITH A PRICE
And were they ever. The blood of our forefathers was shed for us and for the rights we have in our Constitution. Don’t lose them my fellow Americans, don’t lose them, now knowing that the Department of Justice and Attorney General Sessions will help us protect and defend those basic freedoms.
Hear the words of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the great State of Alabama, THE REAL ATTORNEY GENERAL:
“We have staked a country on the principle that robust and even contentious debate is how we discover truth and resolve the most intractable problems before us. This is the heritage that we have been given and which we must protect.”
Amen to that, Mr. Sessions. If you and the Justice Department will step up, stay the course and not only prevent the spread of this Constitutional First Amendment disease, so will WE THE PEOPLE. Thank you for leading us and, no matter how offensive this may be:
GOD BLESS YOU!