US DOE: All public colleges, universities must comply with First Amendment

The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Zack Pruitt regarding the U.S. Department of Education’s new regulations issued Wednesday which require all public colleges and universities that are federal grant recipients to comply with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

“Public colleges and universities should model the First Amendment values they’re supposed to be teaching students. We commend the U.S. Department of Education for understanding this and for desiring to see educational institutions that receive taxpayer dollars respect the constitutionally protected freedoms of everyone. As ADF knows well from the huge volume of legal matters it handles each year and our 442 legal victories to date, many public colleges and universities, when they disagree with a particular viewpoint, are willing to run roughshod over the First Amendment’s protections that all Americans have to freely speak, associate with like-minded people, and peaceably assemble. Those freedoms belong to the very taxpayers who provide the money for public grants; therefore, the taxpayers have good reason to expect grant recipients to respect their rights and their children’s rights that are protected by the First Amendment.”

The ADF Center for Academic Freedom is dedicated to ensuring freedom of speech and association for students and faculty so that everyone can freely participate in the marketplace of ideas without fear of government censorship.

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