redbloodedamerica:

When Free Speech Gets You Arrested: A True Story about the Dangers of Handing Out the Constitution

This is the story of an American college student, Michelle, and her two pals, Nathan and Isaac. At first glance, Michelle, Nathan, and Isaac seem like ordinary people.  They work hard, they study, and they hangout with their friends.  

But, Michelle, Nathan, and Isaac aren’t ordinary people.  Because ordinary people haven’t been arrested and hauled off to jail.  Michelle, Nathan, and Isaac have.  By whom?  By Kellogg Community College, a small school in Battle Creek, Michigan.  For what?  Well, like many in the clink, their alleged crime involved distribution.  Not of drugs, but of little pocket-sized copies of the U.S. Constitution.  That’s right, Michelle, Nathan, and Isaac’s life of crime began like most do, because they love 18th Century American history, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence.  

To help other young Americans learn about this history, Michelle decided to start a Young Americans for Liberty club at Kellogg, to educate students about the Constitution.  To let people know about this new club, Michelle and her friends stood on a large, public walkway at Kellogg, a public college, and handed out their copies of the Constitution, a public document.  Some students accepted the free Constitutions, others ignored them and kept walking.  

After a while, a friendly campus administrator walked by.  His name was Drew Hutchinson, the Manager of Student Life.  Mr. Hutchinson informed Michelle, Nathan, and Isaac that they had to stop what they were doing right away.  “Why?”, the students asked.  They weren’t obstructing anyone’s path or interfering with any nearby events.  “Because,” Mr. Hutchinson explained, “of the school’s speech permit policy which prohibits free speech in any outdoor location, and requires students to get the school’s permission before engaging in any expressive activity.“  Mr. Hutchinson said it was his job to protect Kellogg students, many of whom, and he really said this, "Are from rural areas where they are taught to be polite "and don’t have the internet and so may not feel comfortable ignoring Michelle, Nathan, and Isaac."  

Michelle, Nathan, and Isaac couldn’t quite follow Mr. Hutchinson’s logic.  After all, they thought, in America, no school or person has the right to limit freedom of speech.  It says so right in the little pocket-sized Constitution.  So, they continued handing out the document to students passing by.  This made Mr. Hutchinson less friendly, much less friendly.  He called the campus police chief who threatened to arrest Michelle, Nathan, and Isaac if they didn’t stop at once.  At this point, Michelle, Nathan, and Isaac reminded Mr. Hutchinson and the police chief that as long as they were on a public walkway at a public college they had something called rights.  Specifically, they had the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.  In fact, you could say the only permit they needed to assemble and speak freely on a public campus is the Constitution itself.  

Unfortunately, Mr. Hutchinson couldn’t quite follow the students’ logic.  Neither could the police chief whose only actual authority rests in the very pocket-sized Constitution they were handing out.  So, he arrested Michelle, Nathan, and Isaac and threw them in the slammer for over seven hours.  

Guess what?  If you pay taxes in Michigan, you helped pay to arrest Michelle, Nathan, and Isaac.  If you pay taxes anywhere, you also help pay for the many public universities across the country that have policies similar to those at Kellogg Community College.  Policies that forbid students from exercising their God-given, constitutionally protected rights.  But most students won’t even know what they’re missing out on, because if these schools have it their way, they’ll never teach the Constitution in the first place.