To Save America, by Newt Gingrich: on Civil Rights

Newt Gingrich: Repeal hate speech legislation including campus speech codes

• Repeal so-called "hate speech" legislation. Allowing the courts to broadly determine what they consider "hate speech" is profoundly dangerous to a free people. Congress has no constitutional authority to regulate thought. Speech is already protected, and criminal activities are already legally defined, as are their punishments. Religious leaders who speak either from the pulpits are particularly vulnerable.
• Bar public universities that enforce campus speech codes from using taxpayer funding. The forerunner to recently passed "hate speech" legislation can be found in many of today's publicly funded universities. College campuses historically have been the incubator of ideas and the strongholds of free expression. Today, those same schools have instituted intolerant rules and reporting systems designed to silence speech deemed politically incorrect.