C_Clayton_Jones
Diamond Member
‘Trump issued a threat over Twitter on Thursday, suggesting that he would pull federal funding from the world-renowned university after it canceled a speech by polarizing Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos.
[…]
Despite the veiled threat, education experts said Mr. Trump would face serious legal obstacles pulling federal funding from UC Berkeley. First, the bulk of the federal monies for universities are earmarked for student loans and grants under Title IV. The law requires institutions to meet certain conditions, mostly involving educational standards, and the president’s questionable assertion that the school violated free speech rights likely wouldn’t offer sufficient legal pretext for excluding Berkeley.
“Like most things Trump tweets, the threat to pull funding from Berkeley is more bluster than fact,” said Ben Miller, senior director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress, a centrist think tank, and a former policy advisor in the U.S. Department of Education.’
Could Trump yank UC Berkeley funding over Yiannopoulos incident?
As is the case with other rights, the rights enshrined in the First Amendment are not ‘absolute,’ they are subject to reasonable restrictions by government consistent with free speech jurisprudence, such as time, place, and manner restrictions having no bearing on content.
Restrictions on speech out of concern for public safety are perfectly Constitutional, as they don’t seek to preempt the message the speaker seeks to express.
Trump’s empty threat is as ignorant as it is ridiculous, completely devoid of merit or justification.
Given the fact that the school has violated no free speech rights, there would be no legal grounds for excluding Berkeley from receiving Federal funds.
[…]
Despite the veiled threat, education experts said Mr. Trump would face serious legal obstacles pulling federal funding from UC Berkeley. First, the bulk of the federal monies for universities are earmarked for student loans and grants under Title IV. The law requires institutions to meet certain conditions, mostly involving educational standards, and the president’s questionable assertion that the school violated free speech rights likely wouldn’t offer sufficient legal pretext for excluding Berkeley.
“Like most things Trump tweets, the threat to pull funding from Berkeley is more bluster than fact,” said Ben Miller, senior director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress, a centrist think tank, and a former policy advisor in the U.S. Department of Education.’
Could Trump yank UC Berkeley funding over Yiannopoulos incident?
As is the case with other rights, the rights enshrined in the First Amendment are not ‘absolute,’ they are subject to reasonable restrictions by government consistent with free speech jurisprudence, such as time, place, and manner restrictions having no bearing on content.
Restrictions on speech out of concern for public safety are perfectly Constitutional, as they don’t seek to preempt the message the speaker seeks to express.
Trump’s empty threat is as ignorant as it is ridiculous, completely devoid of merit or justification.
Given the fact that the school has violated no free speech rights, there would be no legal grounds for excluding Berkeley from receiving Federal funds.