The Texas Legislature established committees on Sept. 12 to study free speech on college campuses, security measures for political gatherings and the implementation of recently passed higher education laws.
According to a news release from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the Texas Senate and House Select Committees on Civil Discourse and Freedom of Speech in Higher Education were created in response to the national reaction to conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination on earlier this month.
“The attack on Charlie was an attack on the First Amendment,” Patrick wrote in the news release. “Those who cheered his murder are also cheering for the death of America. We cannot tolerate either at our institutions of higher learning.”
The committees will make recommendations to “guide the Legislature’s policy decisions moving forward,” according to the news release. When the legislature is not in session, committees can create reports that help inform policy initiatives ahead of the next legislative session. The committee expires in 2027.
The committees will investigate the implementation of Senate Bill 37 and Senate Bill 2972, or the Campus Protection Act, which have already impacted University policies. To comply with the laws, the UT System Board of Regents temporarily suspended faculty senates at its institutions, and the University walked back its implementation of the free speech laws passed in 2019.
Two days after the announcement of the new committee, Gov. Greg Abbott celebrated the arrest of a Texas Tech University student last week for mocking Kirk. Texas State University also removed a student on Sept. 16 for imitating Kirk’s death by slapping his own neck during a memorial event.
UT students have also drawn criticism from lawmakers. The day after Kirk’s killing, the student organization Students for a Democratic Society posted an image featuring a President Donald Trump-shaped piñata from a Sept. 4 rally. State Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Harris, wrote on X calling for the University to “ban this group from campus.” Oliverson will not be a member of the new committee.
“I don’t think those kinds of hateful views should be tolerated anywhere,” Oliverson said. “I certainly don’t think at a taxpayer-funded public university that those kinds of hateful views should be encouraged or tolerated.”
The Students for a Democratic Society said it was unable to comment at the time of publishing.
David Keating, president of the Institute for Free Speech, said he did not see a reason to ban the group from campus.
“I can understand why people are upset about it,” Keating said. “The First Amendment protects repulsive speech as well because we don’t want the government deciding what’s repulsive and what isn’t.”
Keating said he thinks the free speech committees have a good goal. However, Keating said the results will depend on how seriously legislators will take this job and whether they are going into the study with preconceived notions.
“To the extent that we can create a better environment where people can be more tolerant of each other’s views, then that would be a good thing,” Keating said. “We’ll see what they come up with.”
