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Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Attorney General Jeff Sessions to Speak Today at Georgetown Law

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is set to speak at Georgetown Law today yo condemn what he says are assaults on free speech on college campuses.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is set to give a speech at the Georgetown University Law Center to condemn rising opposition to unrestricted free speech on college campuses this afternoon.

Sessions’ address is set to focus on the transformation of universities into an “echo chamber of political correctness and homogenous thought, a shelter for fragile egos,” according to Axios, quoting a source close to Sessions.

Sessions is scheduled to deliver remarks at the law school’s Center for the Constitution at noon, followed by a question-and-answer session with GULC professor Randy Barnett, the center’s director.

The Georgetown chapter of the student group Young Democratic Socialists of America said it would protest Sessions’ speech, promising to try to “shut him down.”

“A university that claims to care about the travel ban and DACA rescindment shouldn’t invite the man who defended both,” a Facebook invitation for the protest of Sessions’ speech reads.

Sessions, a former U.S. senator and the first to endorse President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, has vocally supported the president’s hardline policies on immigration during the campaign and while serving in his administration.

University President John J. DeGioia has taken public stances against two such policies: a series of bans on refugees and visitors from some majority-Muslim countries, and the decision to rescind the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protected about 800,000 young immigrants without documentation from deportation.

Sessions’ remarks echo criticisms that have been leveled against a number of colleges in recent years, as they have faced pressure from students to disinvite conservative speakers.

The University of California, Berkeley, has come under fire multiple times this year for its handling of student protests of controversial speakers, including protests that turned violent in February and led Berkley to cancel a scheduled speech by conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos. More recently, Ben Shapiro, a conservative media figure, was met by hundreds of student protesters Sept. 14 after being invited to speak by the student group Berkeley College Republicans.

President Donald Trump threatened to withhold Berkeley’s federal funding in a Feb. 2 tweet at the height of the free speech standoff.

Georgetown has had its own share of showdowns over speakers in recent years. In May 2016, a group of Georgetown students petitioned the university to rescind its invitation to then-Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to speak at that year’s School of Foreign Service commencement, citing Johnson’s role in deporting immigrants living in the country without documentation.

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  • M

    mClareSep 26, 2017 at 9:48 pm

    I agree…Why be afraid of hearing information that may challenge your opinions? Issues are often complicated and require research and the ability to reason and make distinctions. It is this ability to reason and make distinctions I see so lacking today. STRIVE FOR THE TRUTH. BE TENACIOUS FOR THE TRUTH. One must take the time to investigate all aspects of an issue, not just rely on one or two liners from the media. For example, how many of you actually read or listened to President Trump’s speech to the United Nations? Or did you just accept the media’s brief assessment that it was ‘warmongering.’ I found it balanced, informative and educational (do you know what the three pillars of the UN and the Marshall Plan are?) and put the problems with our enemies in a wider perspective. Grandma

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  • H

    Hoya2019Sep 26, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    Dude, this is Georgetown. The university is more likely to give them an award.

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  • H

    hoyalumSep 26, 2017 at 9:41 am

    If GU is serious about exchange of ideas, if members of the GU Chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America cause violence or otherwise prevent AG Sessions from speaking, the University should have no choice other than to expel them.

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