Texas looks to enact restrictions on when and how students can protest

[Zorro]

Gov. Greg Abbott may soon sign the measure, which would bar campus protesters from using microphones, putting up tents or demonstrating after 10 p.m.

Texas’s conservative governor may soon sign a measure that opponents say would dramatically limit how more than a million students enrolled in one of the country’s largest public university systems are allowed to protest on campus, part of the Republican response to last year’s roiling student protests over the Israel-Gaza war.

Senate Bill 2972 prohibits protesting between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m., or during the last two weeks of the semester; and bans students from camping or erecting tents on campus, or wearing a disguise to conceal their identity. It also bars the use of microphones and drums.

State Sen. Brandon Creighton, a Republican from north of Houston, wrote S.B. 2972 — dubbed the “Campus Protection Act” — which he and other Republicans in the Texas legislature have touted as the state’s response to nationwide protests over the Israel-Gaza war. Last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called in more than 100 state troopers to clear out students attempting to occupy a campus lawn on the University of Texas at Austin.

“While the world watched Columbia, Harvard and other campuses across the country taken hostage by pro-terrorist mobs last year, Texas stood firm. UT allowed protest, not anarchy,” Creighton said in a statement to The Washington Post. “No First Amendment rights were infringed — and they never will be. This is how we protect student safety, defend our institutions, and safeguard freedom for generations to come.”

https://wapo.st/4ldJUQa

Only government-sanctioned and approved protests allowed to protect your freedom to protest...

[dlk]

1. So much for the Constitution...

Abbott is legislating convenient protests.

[J_William_Ryan]

2. Some of the law's provisions would likely pass Constitutional muster.

Time, place, and manner restrictions are usually upheld as lawful since they don’t regulate the content of speech.

The Supreme Court has long held that there’s no First Amendment right to camp or place tents on public property as a form of protest.

But however Constitutional, the law is clearly passed in bad faith, an effort to restrict speech the state doesn’t approve of.