Legislative Update: HB516 - February 03, 2023 Windham Independent
Legislative Update - HB516
The Finance II committee met for full day work sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday and the House was in session on Thursday to vote on the first batch of bills that made it through committees.
This week, I would like to introduce my other bill: HB516 - An act relative to freedom of speech and association at public institutions of higher education.
The bill language can be found on the General Court website at https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/. Reading the entire bill text is best, but to summarize:
HB516 protects free speech by declaring the outdoor areas of campuses of public institutions of higher education to be public forums where speech shall not be prohibited. Reasonable, viewpoint-neutral restrictions on speech are still allowed.
HB516 protects freedom of association by not allowing public institutions of higher education to deny any student organization any benefit available to any other student organization, or otherwise discriminate against such an organization, based on the beliefs of the organization.
Public universities need to encourage vigorous but civil debate between students that disagree on a topic, rather than taking the popular, but unconstitutional approach of banning speech or associations based on their viewpoints to avoid potential contentious discussions. Students have the right to hear all speech, debate speech which they disagree with, and protest such speech while staying within the bounds of state laws.
Living in a communist country taught me how censorship fails, even when authoritarian governments jail people engaging in peaceful speech. Banning speech does not make ideas disappear, it just pushes them underground, making it harder to argue against them. Listening when others advocate against our deeply held beliefs can be tough, but we are all better off when everyone can speak their mind publicly, if only to give the rest of us an opportunity to publicly debate them.
This bipartisan bill is supported by the Foundation for Individual rights and Expression (https://www.thefire.org), a highly respected free speech advocacy group, and given the admirable stance on college free speech of the American Civil Liberties Union (https://www.aclu.org/other/speech-campus), I am working to also earn the support of ACLU-NH, in order to build as broad of a coalition as possible.
Next week, I will start summarizing some of the bills I am co-sponsoring - they range from bills where all the other sponsors are Republican, to bills where all the other sponsors are Democrat. I support good ideas, regardless of who is proposing them. My job is to pass good legislation, and that requires building bipartisan coalitions wherever possible, without compromising my principles.
I am always happy to talk to any Windham resident - you can reach me with concerns or questions about any legislative matters at 603 267 4142 (call or text), email me at dpm@leg.state.nh.us or send me a letter at 12 Clarke Farm Rd., Windham, NH 03087.
Daniel Popovici-Muller
Windham Representative