Virginia Delegate files resolution based on Goldwater campus free speech model
Virginia Delegate Dave LaRock (R-Clarke, Frederick, and Loudoun Counties) filed House Resolution 431, The Campus Free Speech Resolution, based on the Goldwater Institute's model legislation. Stanley Kurtz writes in National Review:
Since the Virginia House of Delegates is nearing the end of its current session, Delegate LaRock is offering a resolution conveying the sense of the legislature, to be followed up next session by detailed legislation based on the Goldwater model. As Delegate LaRock put it in a press release, “This resolution will put down a marker as a precursor for next session when I will follow up with legislation to assure that universities take this seriously.”
Explaining his reason for taking up the Goldwater proposal on campus free speech, Del. LaRock said:
“Virginia is the cradle of democracy and it is a disgrace that many universities have lost track of the idea that it is their responsibility to uphold free-speech principles… By passing this measure we are communicating to universities and the public that students are in school to learn how to think; they are not going to college to be protected from differing opinions.”
Virginia’s HR 431, and Del. LaRock’s promise to follow it next session with fuller legislation based on the Goldwater model, means that
Virginia is now the third state to move forward with initiatives based on the Goldwater proposal.
