Newly elected state Rep. Amy Grant's (R-Wheaton) decision to support fellow lawmaker Deanne Mazzochi’s effort to assure greater free speech protections was a no-brainer.
“I think it’s a good idea and I agree with her wholeheartedly,” Grant told the DuPage Policy Journal of a resolution Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) recently introduced that would prohibit public universities from being eligible to receive taxpayer funding if they are deemed to be limiting the freedom of speech of certain students or faculty members.
Mazzochi sprang into action after a Virginia-based group known as Speech First filed suit against the University of Illinois in U.S. District Court, alleging that the rights of some students were being systematically violated by school officials seemingly opposed to their conservative views and values. Soon after the 29-page filing was made public, Mazzochi took to the House floor where she urged members to join her in ensuring that First Amendment constitutional rights are being protected.
Illinois state Rep. Amy Grant (R-Wheaton)
| repgrant.com
“Even in this body, we often hear speech that is rude, biased, wrong, hurtful, emotional, offensive, hateful and sometimes even vile, and the answer to that is never to suppress speech but to counter it with more speech,” Mazzochi said on the House floor. “And to follow any other path renders our society less free, accountable and less able to seek the truth no matter how much that truth may hurt.”
A first-year lawmaker who replaced Jeanne Ives, Grant’s 42nd House District includes all or parts of Carol Stream, Lisle, Warrenville, Wheaton, Winfield, West Chicago and Naperville. Among the various committees she sits on in Springfield is the Appropriations-Elementary & Secondary Education Committee panel.
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