U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions thrust himself into the hot button issue of free speech on Tuesday, telling an audience at the Georgetown University Law Center that “freedom of speech and thought is under attack” at American universities and colleges.
“Whereas the American University was once the center of academic freedom — a place of robust debate, a forum for the competition of ideas — it is transforming into an echo chamber of political correctness and homogenous thought, a shelter for fragile egos,” Sessions said in prepared remarks.
Sessions’ comments come amid debate on college campuses over controversial speakers who have drawn sometimes violent protests. Some schools have canceled speeches over safety concerns, drawing criticism from free speech advocates who say universities are places that should not shy away from controversial debates.
Sessions cited a recent survey of 450 colleges and universities that showed “40 percent maintain speech codes that substantially infringe on constitutionally protected speech.”
He criticized the universities for deciding “what is offensive and what is unacceptable” and for disinviting controversial speakers.
“The university is about the search for truth, not the imposition of truth by a government censor,” he said.
Sessions spoke at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, an academic institute that “offers a variety of programs on constitutional law and theory” with “special emphasis on how best to remain faithful to the Constitution’s text.
The invitation-only event excluded students and faculty members not affiliated with the center, leading one disgruntled student to suggest that the academic center wanted a more sympathetic audience for Sessions.
Students and faculty members said they planned to protest the appearance of a conservative attorney general who has become a lightning rod for liberal critics of the Trump administration’s policies on race relations, civil rights and immigration.
The Georgetown chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America tweeted that they’ll attend the protest.
A group of faculty members said that although they acknowledged Sessions right to speak, he was not the right person for the subject.
“Attorney General Sessions is a key cabinet member in an administration headed by a president who spent last weekend denouncing athletes engaged in free expression,” the group said in a statement issued on Monday.
Last weekend, Trump denounced professional football players for keeling in protest during the national anthem before games, saying they should be fired for disrespecting the flag and the country.
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