College life was once idealized as a place where students would not only develop their intellectual knowledge and receive an education that would hopefully lead to a good job, but also a place where people learned to think, question their ideas, and expand their minds.
Those who oppose democracy are the enemies of independent critical thought. Authoritarians want respect, not challenges.
For critical thinkers to challenge their government, they need the right to free speech under the First Amendment.
Trump has attacked the First Amendment on college campuses since returning to office.
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The scale and scope of Trump’s attacks were not determined until the release of Senator Bernie Sanders. a new report Wednesday.
Here are three examples of what Senator Sanders discovered:
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A Trump-appointed judge in the Maryland District Court found that the Trump administration “initiated a sweeping change in how the Department of Education regulates educational practices and classroom conduct that has caused millions of educators to reasonably fear that their lawful, and even beneficial, speech could lead to them or their schools being punished.”
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A California district court judge declared that “the administration and its executive agencies are engaged in a concerted campaign to purge ‘woke,’ ‘left-wing,’ and ‘socialist’ viewpoints from our nation’s leading universities.” »
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A Massachusetts district court judge noted that “fundamental constitutional rights” provide an “essential protection against authoritarianism.” The judge warned, quoting George Washington, that “if free speech is suppressed, then ‘dumb and silent, we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.’
The Sanders report also reveals that the Trump administration is trying to control higher education.
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