Jan 23
University of Florida Attack On 1st Amendment Compared To Communist China By Judge
As with many Republican controlled states, Florida recently passed a law aimed at making it harder for minorities to vote. DeSantis has an election coming up and it might be disturbingly close if the “wrong” kind of people find it easy to vote.
The state was sued over the new law. Plaintiffs, seeking to protect the right to vote, planned to use expert testimony from professors at the University of Florida. Alas, under pressure from the Republican Governor, UF told the professors they could not so testify as it would not be in the best interests of the university.
You might hear that and be appalled, thinking it a clear violation of parts of the Constitution other than the 2d Amendment that is the only Constitutional concern of the modern conservative. After all, if the University can do this what would prevent the University from telling employees that they MUST vote for the ruling party, because that too is in the best interests of the University?
Today, a Federal judge ruled the University can’t suppress this speech, but it’s how the judge did it that is so incredible. Cause DAMN!
I shall now quote from the decision. Please read every word of it:
“For more than twenty years, an imposing, eight-meter-tall statue stood on the University of Hong Kong’s campus. Commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre victims, the statue — known as the Pillar of Shame — was ‘a towering entanglement of human suffering cast in bronze, copper and concrete.’ Its base said simply: ‘The old cannot kill the young forever.’
In December 2021, however, the University decided to remove the statue. A statement explaining the decision declared simply that removing the statue was in ‘the best interest of the University.’ . . .
Some might say, ‘that’s China, it could never happen here.’ But Plaintiffs contend it already has . . . UF has bowed to perceived pressure from Florida’s political leaders and has sanctioned the unconstitutional suppression of ideas out of favor with Florida’s ruling party . . .
Because the First Amendment protects those who wish to speak truthfully and critically of that which others pretend not to see . . . Defendants must take no steps to enforce its conflict-of-interests policy with respect to faculty and staff requests to engage as expert witnesses or provide legal consulting in litigation involving the State of Florida.”
You can read the decision HERE:
