West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, issued guidance Wednesday telling state colleges and universities to prepare for outside agitators and be ready to shut down illegal protests using local police.
While West Virginia schools have seen some but relatively few pro-Palestinian protests and encampments, which have taken root at universities across the country, Morrisey issued guidance clarifying responsibilities under the First Amendment and for student safety. He also instructed schools not to appease protester demands.
“Students should be finishing their studies for the year, celebrating graduations, and saying goodbye to friends; they should not be dealing with malcontents who aim to destroy our campus communities in these waning days,” the guidance said. “We need not stand idly by while those who want to sow discord and hate cloak themselves in a warped view of the First Amendment.”
Morrisey issued six recommendations to prevent or respond to “out-of-control protests from poisoning our campuses as they have in other places,” adding, “Normally, I’d trust that West Virginians could avoid the problems that we’ve seen elsewhere. But unfortunately, many of these protesters aren’t affiliated with the schools they are occupying.”
The guidance made clear that the First Amendment does not allow schools to control the content of speech. As the Washington Examiner has reported, the bar for regulating content is extremely high. However, that protection changes when speech turns into a true threat or an incitement to violence.
Morrisey’s guidance highlighted this distinction, saying that “true threats of violence” and statements “directed [at] producing imminent lawless action” are not protected and schools “need not permit acts, threats, or incitements of violence, even if protesters and instigators commit them in the guise of free speech.” Speech is also subjected to “time, place, and manner” restrictions, but Morrisey clarified that “to be permitted, restrictions like these need only be content-neutral, narrowly tailored, and leave open ample alternative channels.”
Suggesting the adoption of “content-neutral” regulations on demonstration, such as noise limits and the number of people allowed to assemble, Morrisey also proposed banning full-face masks to “reduce the danger that anonymity can create.”
The West Virginia Republican told universities, “You must take your harassment policies seriously,” adding that harassment of Jewish students has increased and “suspensions or expulsions should be on the table.” He also recommended that universities work with local law enforcement to create plans to respond in case violence occurs and “be ready to call on law enforcement to enforce relevant criminal law.”
Finally, Morrisey told schools to “reject any policy of appeasement. Conceding to protesters’ demands, as some other schools have done, is not an option.”
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Some schools have capitulated to the demands of protesters, as the Washington Examiner reported, but Morrisey said it sets a “dangerous precedent,” adding the “demands themselves are unsupportable.”
“Most often, protesters are insisting that universities ‘divest’ from Israeli-related investments,” the guidance noted. “Yet the West Virginia Legislature has already declared that ‘[t]he State of Israel is one of the United States’ closest allies and international trading partners,’ and ‘boycotts that attempt to isolate Israel within the international community have served as a vehicle for spreading anti-Semitism and advocating for the elimination of the Jewish State of Israel.'”