Detroit City Wire

After Kellogg Community College settled a freedom of speech lawsuit in 2018 for $55,000 after three people were arrested while passing out copies of the constitution, one Michigan House member has had enough.

According to a Michigan GOP Facebook post, Rep. John Reilly (R-Lake Orion) drafted the legislation to protect students’ free-speech rights.

House Bill 4436 is designed in part to “promote and safeguard the right of free speech and assembly on the campuses of public universities and community and junior colleges,” according to the bill text.

“It’s really disappointing to witness Michigan’s public colleges—which are supposed to be ‘marketplaces of ideas’—fail to uphold the constitutional rights of students and the community on campus grounds,” Reilly said in a press release.

The bill would reverse a precedent previously allowing public universities to “operate autonomously of the legislature,” the release stated. That policy was challenged by a 1999 state Supreme Court case that specified lawmakers could overrule universities “to protect the public welfare.”

According to the Battle Creek Enquirer, two of the three people arrested at Kellogg Community College and campus libertarian group Young Americans for Liberty sued the college. The three people arrested in 2016 alleged they were told they had to register and keep the solicitation to the college's student center. The college did not admit to any wrongdoing.