BOULDER, Colo. — President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday morning to withhold federal funding for colleges and universities that allow "illegal protests."
The post, shared on his social media platform Truth Social, states that "All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests," and warns that agitators will be imprison or deported to their country of origin. It also states that any U.S. citizen who participates in an "illegal protest" will be expelled and potentially arrested.
The post, as shared by the president, can be read below.
Some legal experts Denver7 spoke with Tuesday think the post stems from last summer’s student protests across U.S. college campuses over the Israel-Hamas War, including here in Denver.
“Students on campus have First Amendment rights to engage in all sorts of speech, including speech that is dissenting, including speech that is protesting, including speech that many people might disagree with. And nothing that the President's post does, can make that illegal," said Deep Gulasekaram, a CU Boulder professor of law and the director of the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law. "He cannot unilaterally override the First Amendment of the United States Constitution."
Gulasekaram said campuses may have rules surrounding protests, but in general, students have a right to protest on college campuses.
“People can protest. People can make their voice heard. Students can do so on college campuses. It is certainly illegal, having nothing to do with this post or anything the President says, to engage in behavior that is disruptive of the educational environment. It is illegal under state laws to threaten people and to engage in harassment, but that has nothing to do with this post," Gulasekaram said.
Gulasekaram explained that the Supreme Court has, throughout the years, ruled in favor of a person's right to freedom of speech — including the right to protest. He cited a famous 1940s ruling born out of a West Virginia state law that compelled students in public schools to salute the American flag as part of the school’s activities shortly after the U.S. joined World War II. In that case, a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses instructed their children to not salute the flag or say the pledge, which led to the children being expelled from school.
The majority opinion in that case, as written by Justice Robert Jackson, states that, "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein."
Gulasekaram said that ruling "is just as true today as it was 70 years ago."
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