DOJ Backs Claim of Free-Speech Violations at University of Michigan

The Trump administration has decided that anti-bullying policies on college campuses are a threat to free speech rights and is using the resources of the Justice Department to go after them, most recently at the University of Michigan.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that the department filed a statement of interest in a federal court brief in Michigan’s Eastern District, supporting a student group called Speech First that alleged that its members were discriminated against for wearing “Make America Great Again” hats and supporting President Trump.

“Instead of protecting free speech, the university imposes a system of arbitrary censorship of, and punishment for, constitutionally protected speech,” John M. Gore, an acting assistant attorney general, wrote in a brief.

The Times reports that the suit takes aim at “a series of events at Michigan, including an incident in which Charles Murray, a conservative speaker invited to campus by Young Americans for Freedom, was [according to the lawsuit] ‘met with chants, music, intentionally annoying cellphone sounds, an overhead projector displaying an arrow pointing to him along with the words white supremacist.’ ”

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