Students ARRESTED For Handing Out Constitution Punch Back HARD

In an extremely disturbing development, three activists and college students were reportedly arrested by campus police at Kellogg Community College for handing out pocket copies of the Constitution and signing students up to join a conservative student organization. In response, a legal organization has filed a lawsuit against the school.

Campus Reform reported:

As detailed in video footage obtained exclusively by Campus Reform, a KCC student and two fellow conservative activists spent two to three hours handing out Constitutions and recruiting for a Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) chapter on campus in September before they were accosted by administrators and ultimately arrested for trespassing.

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The three activists in the video are Nathan Berning, a Stanford student and employee of the Leadership Institute; Isaac Edikauskas, vice president of Michigan State YAL; and Shelly Gregoire, president of Kellogg YAL.

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They were first stopped by Drew Hutchinson, the manager of Student Life at KCC, who told them they couldn’t approach students outside or engage them in conversation because it could “obstruct the student’s ability to get an education.”

“We ask that you don’t do it in the middle of everything, and part of that is because if we obstruct the student’s ability to get an education then it kind of becomes counterintuitive to the whole, um, right to speak, kind of Second Amendment rights [sic],” Hutchison said, apparently meaning to cite the First Amendment.

The activists explained that they weren’t physically blocking anyone or forcing them to stop and talk with them. Gregoire noted, “[when] we’ve had people who have said they’re not interested, we don’t go after them.”

Hutchison, who apparently didn’t have a very high estimation of the students on campus, said that “these students also don’t know that they can say ‘see ya later.’”

Edikauskas went on to ask a student passing by if he “likes freedom and liberty.” The student said “sure” and stopped to talk further.

Seems like a perfectly reasonable exchange — in fact, an educational one that should be encouraged anywhere and especially on a college campus, right? Not according to Hutchison, who claimed that the exchange violated the Student Code of Conduct.

Hutchison claimed that the code of conduct was broken because the student who replied “sure” was on his way to “educational places,” and that the question “Do you like freedom and liberty?” was too “provocative.”

“You’re asking them a provocative question in which you are instigating whether they are American or not. It’s a very powerful question,” Hutchison said and also argued that the students were compelled to stop to talk because of “social pressures.”

The activists said that after more debate about school policy, an frustrated Hutchison said, “I’m digging myself into a hole here!”

Yes, sounds like it.

That’s not even the worst of it. About 20 minutes later, the activists said that was when a campus security officer approached them and questioned why they hadn’t left campus yet, to which they noted that they hadn’t because they felt the request violated their First Amendment rights.

Next, campus police officers circled the activists — even the Chief of Police, Harold West, got involved and told them that their actions were in violation of student conduct. He gave them two options: leave or move their activities inside to a predetermined location.

“Essentially what we’re asking you to do is comply and leave and get the proper permits,” West told the activists. “Yes we do have civil rights, you have liberties, you have [the] First Amendment. However, when they start violating other people’s rights that’s when it starts to run into a problem.”

Berning questioned West about what rights their activities that day violated and he responded, “You’re violating the school structure.”

Huh?

Campus Reform reported:

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal organization that advocates for constitutional rights and religious liberty, has filed a lawsuit against KCC alleging that the actions of administrators and campus police officers violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

“Free speech is a right, not a privilege that can be censored by university officials on a public campus,” ADF points out in a press release. “If public universities silence free speech on campus, they deny their students opportunities for engagement and learning. If public universities stifle these learning opportunities on campus, they impair a student’s ability to function in the real world.”