Trump says executive order coming to protect free speech on campuses
Trump, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference this weekend, said, “Today, I am proud to announce that I will be very soon signing an executive order requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal research funds.”
Cambridge civil-rights attorney Harvey Silverglate said he supports a move like this, saying, “Federal funds should not be funding censorship.”
“There is a real tyranny of correctness if you deviate from the real progressive view of things,” Silverglate said of the state of discourse on college campuses, though he said he suspects Trump is simply “grandstanding” because “other times he has no problem telling people in the federal government to shut up.”
Trump and other conservatives have increasingly taken issue with what they see as campus crackdowns on opinions that aren’t considered politically correct.
Conservative speakers have faced protests and even some rioting from left-wing protesters, and many universities have codes that limit some speech deemed offensive but is legally protected in the non-college world.
The federal government currently provides colleges and universities with a total of $30 billion in research funding — money the president and the Department of Education could route away from schools they see as behaving badly.
The White House did not release any further details about the order.
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