Attorney General Jeff Sessions was met with a large protest group made up of Georgetown Law students and faculty members when he arrived to deliver a speech declaring that free speech is "under attack" on American campuses.
The attorney general did defend the activists' right to state their disagreement with him. "We will defend your views and the right to express them in appropriate and effective ways," he said. "We celebrate the diversity of opinion, we celebrate your freedom to ask questions and to push back, that's part of American heritage."
Sessions, however, pushed back against college administrators across the country who have silenced speech by allowing threats by protest groups "to control who gets to speak and what messages are conveyed."
"This permissive attitude toward the heckler's veto has spawned a cottage industry of protesters who have quickly learned that school administrators will capitulate to their demands," Sessions said during his speech.
"Protesters are now routinely shutting down speeches and debates across the country in an effort to silence voices that insufficiently conform with their views," he said.
The protest group was not granted access to the auditorium where Sessions delivered his remarks, which went off without a hitch.
Sessions announced in his speech that the Department of Justice would begin to take a more active role in cases regarding free speech on college campuses. "A national recommitment to free speech on campus and to ensuring First Amendment rights is long overdue," he said.
"Starting today, the Department of Justice will do its part in this struggle," Sessions declared. "We will enforce federal law, defend free speech, and protect students' free expression from whatever end of the political spectrum it may come."
Sessions said that DOJ would file a Statement of Interest in a lawsuit filed by students at Georgia Gwinnett College who were restricted with "free-speech zones" by administrators.
Sessions said the Statement of Interest was the first of many the department would file, complaining that the restriction of free speech is transforming universities into "an echo chamber of political correctness and homogeneous thought."
"For the last 241 years, we have staked a country on the principle that robust and even contentious debate is how we discover truth and resolve the most intractable problems before us," he said in conclusion. "Your generation will decide if this experiment in freedom will continue."
Outside the speech, the large group of students and law professors, many clad in "Black Lives Matter" shirts, joined to "take a knee" in protest of Sessions.
"I welcome everyone at this moment to take a knee," said the event organizer. "Take a knee in the name of civil rights, take a knee in the name of opportunity, take a knee in the name of oppression, take a knee in the name of Black Lives Matter, take a knee in the name of climate change, take a knee in the name of environmental rights."
"Remember this day," the organizer said. "This day is historic."
The group of roughly 30 participating professors released a statement explaining their belief that it was hypocritical for Sessions to speak on free speech after President Donald Trump criticized NFL players for protesting the national anthem.
The professors stood by as Sessions was labeled a "white supremacist" by activists. They stood in front of a group, which held up signs such as, "Fuck Jeff 'Racist Keebler Elf' Sessions."
The faculty members joined in on the group's kneeling—one even wore a knee-pad in order to ease the pain of the activity.
Sessions defended Trump's criticism of NFL players who chose to protest during the national anthem.
"The president has free speech rights too," Sessions said. "He sends soldiers out everyday to defend this country under the flag of the United States."
He acknowledged that players have the right to protest but that they should "expect to be condemned" for provocative acts. He added that the players have the assets to express their political views in better ways than "denigrating the symbols of our nation."
"It's a big mistake to protest in that fashion," Sessions said.