Free speech bills move on to State Senate

HELENA - Two bills sponsored by House District 92 Representative Mike Hopkins (R-Missoula) regarding freedom of expression on college campuses have passed the Montana House of Representatives and are set to move on to the Montana State Senate. If approved these would both be passed into state law.

House Bill 349 would allow campus organizations to exclude people based on their beliefs as well as prevent universities from expelling students based on their speech. It passed on third reading 67-33 Feb. 23.

According to Hopkins, this bill protects university students’ rights of assembly by allowing groups to exclude those who do not share their beliefs from participating. Examples he gave include pro-choice student groups having a pro-choice leader, pro-life groups having a pro-life leader and Muslim groups having a Muslim leader.

“The point of it is that college Republicans want to have a Republican chair,” he said. “That’s their right. … The way the policy currently works at the university [is that] you have university Democrats [coming] into the college Republican group or Republicans [coming] into the college Democratic group, just to troll them … at the meetings.”

Hopkins said the right to allow this exclusion would apply to both group leadership positions as well as general membership.

Hopkins said he can personally attest to infiltration taking place among university groups because he was the president of College Republicans as well as the business manager for University of Montana’s student government. He said while he was a student those groups would go into each other’s organizations and mess with each other.

House Bill 218 would ban universities from restricting speech to an area of campus. It passed on third reading 96-3 on Feb. 19.

Hopkins said it would allow students to take action against the university should administrators infringe on their ability to express their First Amendment rights. Universities could be fined anywhere from $5,000 to $75,000 if they are found liable.

According to Hopkins, First Amendment Rights violations could include destroying physical materials when groups are organizing a table outside or having a presentation “shut down” by a “vocal minority.” One example he gave was when the dean of Montana State University’s school of journalism declined to sponsor the speech of controversial conservative political columnist Mike Adams in 2018.

Hopkins said these two bills are a part of a total of four bills regarding free speech, the other two have not yet officially been brought to the House. He does not believe these other two will be brought out in this session. These would most likely be more targeted towards K-12. He is bringing this collection of bills forward through smaller increments because he believes that this helps make them more digestible.

He is passionate about these bills due to his personal experience being involved in campus political groups as well as his desire to make sure students can maintain their constitutional rights while on school property.

“I think that our kids need to have access to their constitutional rights and [should not] forfeit them just for walking onto a university campus,” Hopkins said. “But in a bigger way, these are customers of the state of Montana, right? Whether it’s they themselves, or it’s their parents, they are paying the state of Montana for a product and that product is a proper education. And I don’t think there is anything stipulated in the receipt of that transaction that says that they forfeit their constitutional rights while purchasing that product from the state.”

According to the article “Campus Free Speech” written by James Bradley with the University of Montana Legislative News Service, 13 other proponents from Christian, conservative and Republican groups agreed with Hopkins’ stance.

In the article, Isaac Edikauskas spoke in favor of Bill 349 on behalf of the Montana Chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative lobbying organization funded by the Koch Brothers. He questioned what type of culture would develop in Montana when higher education institutions favor certain student organizations over others and subsequently withhold opportunities on the basis of political ideologies.

Jack Rinck of the Associated Students of the University of Montana was Bill 349’s only listed opponent. He said the bill attempts to solve a nonexistent problem and would hinder students’ rights.

In a press release, Hopkins stated, “If House Bills 218 and 349 become law, students will no longer have their free speech relegated to ‘free speech zones’ and student organizations will not fall victim to our modern cancel culture.”

More information about these bills can be found on https://leg.mt.gov.