Texas House backs ‘Campus Protection Act’ to regulate free speech

AUSTIN – The Austin American-Statesman reports free speech on college campuses is poised to face new constraints after the Texas House gave preliminary approval to Senate Bill 2972, which will limit students’ and employees’ permitted expression on campus. The proposal reverses 2019 protections that established common outdoor areas of a higher education campus as traditional public forums. With an 111-27 vote, the House late Tuesday night overwhelmingly approved an amended Senate Bill 2972, dubbed the “Campus Protection Act,” which included more free speech protections compared with the Senate’s original version. Donning a circular state of Texas clock to highlight the few final hours the House had to pass bills on second reading, Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican who sponsored the bill, stood behind Rep. Chris Turner to support the Democratic member from Grand Prairie in introducing an amendment to “make sure that our campuses must provide a public forum for free speech” and that nothing in the proposal would contradict the U.S. or Texas constitutions.

Leach also issued an amendment clarifying that amplified sound is only prohibited “when there’s an intent to intimidate others or to interfere with campus operations,” university leadership or police. The chamber approved both amendments. “I’m taking what could have been a three- or four-hour debate and it’s going to be less than five minutes,” Leach said as the House approached its 12th hour on the floor. “We’ve been working collaboratively with many of you here in the body, with our Senate counterparts, with the leadership at our university systems across the state, to guarantee the rights of students and faculty to gather peaceably on our college campuses.” Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, authored SB 2972 to tighten free speech rules on college campuses after pro-Palestinian protests erupted in universities across the country, including at several campuses in Texas, last year calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war. More than 150 people were arrested at Texas universities in April 2024 across several pro-Palestinian protests, which organizers and demonstrators asserted were peaceful and lawful. University administrators and lawmakers, however, have accused protesters of being disruptive and antisemitic. In Austin, the Travis County attorney’s office dropped all criminal trespassing charges for demonstrators who were arrested during the April 24 and April 29 protests at the University of Texas. At least five students who were arrested have sued UT over alleged violations of their First Amendment rights. “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 American-Statesman on Saturday about the bill. “No First Amendment rights were infringed—and they never will be.”