A bill titled the “Charlie Kirk Act” was filed for the upcoming legislative session of the Tennessee General Assembly on Tuesday by State Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood).
Filed as House Bill (HB) 1476, the bill seeks to mandate enforceable protections for freedom of expression, academic freedom, and religious and ideological conscience on public college and university campuses in Tennessee, while limiting institutional involvement in political and social advocacy.
The bill would require each public institution to adopt and embed in its bylaws a freedom of expression policy modeled on the University of Chicago’s statement, emphasizing that offensive or unpopular ideas may not be suppressed and that limits on speech must be narrow and lawful.
The legislation would also mandate that governing boards adopt a statement of institutional neutrality based on the University of Chicago’s 1967 Kalven Report, asserting that universities should not take collective positions on political or social issues.
Further, HB 1476 would restrict public universities, faculty, and staff from canceling or blocking invited speakers based on viewpoint or anticipated protests and protect faculty from retaliation for constitutionally protected speech or scholarly work.
The bill would also bar discrimination based on religious beliefs or opposition to abortion, homosexuality, or transgender behavior, and protect student groups’ ability to set belief-based membership or leadership standards.
The legislation includes broad enforcement provisions that would allow lawsuits against both public institutions and individual employees, waive several immunity defenses, and permit courts to award damages and attorneys’ fees.
Colleges and universities would also be required under the bill to impose escalating disciplinary penalties on students and faculty who substantially disrupt invited speakers.
Bulso’s bill honors the work of the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, a champion for free speech who died after being shot at his American Comeback Tour event held at Utah Valley University on September 10.
Kirk, while speaking at an event just months before his death, said, “You should be allowed to say outrageous things. You should be allowed to say contrarian things.”
At the same event, Kirk warned that the “biggest threat to free expression in higher education today” is “the Left.”
The General Assembly is scheduled to convene on Tuesday, January 13.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Charlie Kirk” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
I thought that was what universities and colleges were supposed to do. I guess a law sounds good on the books, but it is what happens in the classroom that really matters. No one seems to really care about addressing that problem. Certainly not the administrators of whom the vast majority are very liberal.