The Tennessee legislature has passed the Charlie Kirk Act, which, if signed by Gov. Bill Lee (R), will ban public institutions of higher education from preventing people with bigoted views from speaking on campus. Moreover, it will also punish students who speak out against campus speakers they disagree with.

The bill protects invited speakers as well as faculty members who express their views. It also explicitly states that a public institution of higher education cannot discriminate or retaliate against someone due to their views on “homosexuality, or transgender behavior, regardless of whether that opposition is motivated by religious or non-religious belief.”

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The legislation mandates that schools adopt the University of Chicago’s Freedom of Expression Policy, which states that it is not the school’s role to shield people from ideas and opinions they find abhorrent.

The Tennessee bill quotes parts of the policy, including a segment that touts that the school’s “fundamental commitment is to the principle that debate or deliberation may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the University community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong-headed.”

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“It is for the individual members of the University community, not for the University as an institution, to make those judgments for themselves, and to act on those judgments not by seeking to suppress speech, but by openly and vigorously contesting the ideas that they oppose. Indeed, fostering the ability of members of the University community to engage in such debate and deliberation in an effective and responsible manner is an essential part of the University’s educational mission.”

The actions the law would ban on campuses include making noise to drown out a speaker, blocking an audience’s view of a speaker with one’s body or a sign, staging a walk-out during an event that causes “considerable distrption or distraction or the need to pause the event,” and preventing a speaker or audience member from entering an event.

Violations could lead to probation, suspension, or expulsion for both students and faculty members.

State Rep. Gino Bulso (R), who sponsored the bill, claimed the bill is not named after Kirk because he was conservative, but rather “because he actually gave his life in the defense of freedom of expression and doing so in a civil manner,” WPLN reported.

Kirk – who was assassinated in September at a public speaking event at Utah Valley University in Provo – was a prominent rightwing activist and podcaster known for his extreme statements, like, “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified,” and that being gay is an “error” that needs to be “correct[ed].” He was vehemently anti-LGBTQ+ and was particularly outspoken against trans rights, once calling trans people a “throbbing middle finger to God.”

Utah Valley students opposed to Kirk’s appearance circulated an online petition calling for university administrators to bar him from appearing. The petition received almost 1,000 signatures. However, in a statement, the university said it would allow his appearance, citing the institution’s “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”

Many who opposed him lost their jobs for refusing to mourn his death, something state Rep. Justin Jones (D) reportedly pointed out: “It’s ironic that this body is talking about free speech when we had professors in Tennessee schools expelled and suspended when they did not mourn the death of Charlie Kirk, when they said that his statements were problematic, and that the way he died did not redeem the way he lived.”

Bulso, however, claimed Kirk “was someone who encouraged everyone to love others” and who “wanted to be known for his courage and for his faith.”

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