SANITY: Tennessee Law Would Outlaw Punishing Students For Speaking Freely, ‘Microagressions.’

Unfortunately, opponents of the bill — which is to say, supporters of educational bureaucrats and crazed PC — managed to turn this into a question of whether ISIS should be allowed to recruit at colleges.

That’s funny, because while actually signing people up and shipping people off to the Mideast would be action, not speech, and not protected by the First Amendment, speaking about the desirability of doing so (except in time of declared war, when it might be treason) would, in fact, be fully protected speech. And for decades, lots of people defended the right of students and faculty to speak about the desirability of supporting communists, etc., with full protection from the courts and the bureaucracy. But that’s different.

I love this from Rep. John DeBerry (D-Memphis): “DeBerry argued that the world has changed from the days of the 1960s, which he said was an era of protest and time of change.” Translation: Free speech for us was good. Now that we’re on top, free speech for those who disagree with us is bad.

DeBerry’s characterization of today’s college students as “half-baked,” alas, seems all too correct. But if they’re too immature to handle free speech, then they’re too immature to obligate themselves to student loans. Or to vote . . .