We have won this campaign! Read about it here!

https://www.thefire.org/campus-free-speech-bill-becomes-law-in-north-car...

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All across the country, conservative speakers have been barred from presenting at colleges due to violent student protests. Many of us have looked on in horror at these demonstrations and cancellations and urged college administrators to take action to restore order on campus and protect the free inquiry of truth.

Fortunately, the North Carolina House has done something about it. They recently passed House Bill 527 that will safeguard free speech on campus! House Bill 527, the Restore/Preserve Campus Free Speech Act, has now been sent to the Senate Committee on Rules and Operations. Please urge them to approve this important bill so that it can be sent to the Governor to become law! It is imperative that free speech be restored on campus!

This bill has been championed by Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest and was written to protect and bolster free speech protections across the UNC system. 

Steven Walker, the General Council for Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, stated: “As far as the principles of free speech, we’re really not breaking any new ground as to what First Amendment law has been. We’re just making sure that things are in place to make sure that we’re following that law properly.”

The ability to speak freely on North Carolina campuses has been severely limited in recent years. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has found that only one campus in the UNC system, Chapel Hill, fully upholds First Amendment Rights.

Here’s one example: as we reported to you last year, Christian students at North Carolina State University in Raleigh were banned from sharing their faith on campus!

A college, of all places, should be a market place of ideas where students can freely engage with one another through discourse. When some are silenced, all suffer. The founders of our nation understood this and that is why they safeguarded free speech in the U.S. Constitution. This North Carolina bill doesn’t give students any additional rights, it merely ensures their First Amendment rights will be protected.

Please sign this petition now and urge the Senate Committee on Rules and Operations to do the right thing in protecting freedom of speech on campus!

Discourse in our country is at an all-time low, but through legal safeguards, we can protect speech on campuses and begin to return the culture in our country back towards freedom.

Further Resources:

http://www.ncleg.net/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2017&BillID=H527

https://www.carolinajournal.com/news-article/campus-free-speech-bill-meant-to-bolster-students-rights/