Legislature to work out differences on bill limiting protests at public universities

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The Texas House and Senate will meet to iron out differences on a bill that would restrict protesting on college campuses.

Senate Bill 2972, which passed 97-39 in a final House vote on Wednesday, would give university systems’ governing boards the power to limit where protests can take place on campus.

Republicans who support say it will prevent disruption and unsafe behavior seen during the pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year. Critics say the measure contradicts previous conservative efforts to protect free speech rights on Texas campuses and is unconstitutional.

Under the new legislation, students and staff would not be allowed to use microphones or any other device to amplify sound while protesting during class hours if they are trying to intimidate others or interfere with campus operations, a university employee or a peace officer doing their job. The bill prohibits them from protesting within 300 feet of residences overnight.

Students would also be barred from erecting encampments, taking down an institution’s U.S. flag to put up another nation’s or organization’s banner and wearing disguises to avoid being identified while protesting or to intimidate others.

Finally, anyone at a campus protest would be required to present a valid ID when asked by a university official.

Hours before a key legislative deadline Tuesday, the House amended the bill to be less restrictive, but the Senate refused to concur on Thursday. The Senate’s version would have largely prohibited protesting at all overnight and wearing masks or facial coverings at protests, which was flagged as a necessity for people who are immunocompromised.

The Senate and House will now go to conference to iron out the differences behind closed doors.

Prior to the vote Tuesday evening, Tyler Coward, an attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said in an interview with The Texas Tribune that prohibiting overnight protests is “flatly unconstitutional.” He also said the bill’s definitions of expressive activity were too broad.

“Under this bill, the university would be required to ask a student to take off a MAGA hat if they were wearing it at 10:15 p.m. or a Bernie Sanders shirt because that is political, that is expressive activity,” he said.

Those definitions were struck by an amendment by Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, who worked with House Sponsor, Jeff Leach, R-Plano, on the legislation.

In 2019, the Legislature passed a law requiring colleges and universities to ensure that all outdoor common areas of campus can be used to stage a protest, as long as demonstrators don’t break the law or disrupt school activities.

That measure came after Texas A&M leaders canceled a white nationalist rally and Texas Southern University scrapped a planned speech by Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park. Both happened in 2017. Texas A&M said it canceled the event due to safety concerns while TSU said it canceled Cain’s speech because it was organized by an unregistered student group.

“Our college students, our future leaders, they should be exposed to all ideas, I don’t care how liberal they are or how conservative they are,” Sen. Joan Huffman said at the time.

Huffman, a Houston Republican who authored that 2019 law, voted earlier this month in favor of the new limits on protests, citing similar reasons mentioned by other supporters. She said the new measure doesn’t undermine the former one.

“Both bills work to ensure that our academic environments remain spaces for open dialogue and learning, fostering an atmosphere where diverse perspectives can thrive while maintaining safety,” Huffman said in a statement to the Tribune.

During a public hearing on April 16, several University of Texas at Austin students testified against the new legislation. UT-Austin was the site of massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations last year. Police arrested more than 100 people. Gov. Greg Abbott and others applauded the law enforcement response amid reports that Jewish students were suffering from a sharp rise in antisemitism. Critics have said the arrests were an affront to protesters’ free speech rights and that state leaders have broadly conflated criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

“This bill scares me because the University of Texas has already demonstrated hostility towards free speech when they sent police to arrest students peacefully protesting last spring,” said Gwynn Marotta, third-year law student. “Please do not give them the tools to further restrict our speech.”

The Senate passed the new legislation 21-10 without debate on May 14.

Students did not get another chance to testify against the measure when the House Higher Education Committee held a last-minute meeting on May 19 and voted to forward it to the full chamber.

Caro Achar, engagement coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, called it an alarming and ironic move that reinforced why the right to protest must be protected.

“People can’t be expected to go through ‘proper’ routes when those routes are quietly closed,” Achar said.

Critics also raised concerns about how police could know if students were wearing masks for some ill intent. Achar and Coward suspected police would assume everyone was. They pointed out that courts have found that the First Amendment protects anonymous speech. They said America has a long history of it (ie. the letters from Publius in support of the Constitution).

At least one state, Arizona, has passed a law banning overnight encampments on college campuses in reaction to last year’s pro-Palestinian demonstrations. And several universities have imposed their own limits on protesting. Columbia University banned masks after the Trump administration demanded it.

Disclosure: Texas Southern University - Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

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