New Trump Rule Protects Free Speech, Religious Freedom on College Campuses
The Trump administration is moving forward with a policy that expands protections for religious groups on college campuses and threatens to cut federal education funding to colleges that violate free speech rules.
The rule was issued by the Education Department on Wednesday and cements much of what President Donald Trump outlined in a March 2019 executive order demanding wider speech protections at U.S. colleges.
As part of the policy, the Education Department can suspend or terminate grants to public universities found in court to have violated the First Amendment. In extreme cases, schools could become ineligible for any further grants.
The same actions could be taken against private universities found in court to have violated their own speech codes.
Public universities could also lose funding if they fail to provide religious student groups the same rights and benefits as other campus groups, including the use of campus facilities and access to student fee funding.
That edict does not apply to private colleges, which have more flexibility in limiting speech on their campuses.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said the new rule protects the rights of students, teachers and religious institutions.
“Students should not be forced to choose between their faith and their education, and an institution controlled by a religious organization should not have to sacrifice its religious beliefs to participate in Department grants and programs,” DeVos said in a statement.
In his March 2019 executive order, Trump directed a dozen federal agencies to tie their university funding to free speech rules.
The new policy applies only to certain Education Department grants, and it was not immediately clear if similar policies are being prepared by other agencies.
The policy was welcomed by a variety of religious groups that say colleges too often discriminate against students based on their faith.
Some groups cited a 2018 case at the University of Iowa, which disbanded several religious groups that declined to adopt a policy forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The university launched its crackdown after a gay student was rejected from a leadership position in a campus Christian group.
In its policy, the Education Department specifically forbids colleges from discriminating against religious student groups based on “leadership standards” that are “informed by sincerely held religious beliefs.”
The policy benefits Muslim student groups by allowing them to choose their leaders according to their faith’s principles, according to Ismail Royer, director of the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team for the Religious Freedom Institute.
“This right should be reserved for all student religious organizations, and not usurped by university officials based on their own shifting, unpredictable standards,” Royer said in a statement.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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