“We silence voices all the time in this country. That’s the tragedy and also the greatness of democracy.”

That’s not a witty line from a political sitcom. And it isn’t an incisive excerpt from a dystopian novel.

It’s what State University of New York at Cortland President Dr. Erik Bitterbaum told Megan Rothmund and Gabriella Delorenzo after they were publicly maligned by fellow students and a professor of Marxism all because they wanted to start a TPUSA chapter on campus.

Denied official recognition on campus—and prevented from accessing a pool of mandatory student activity fees they were required to pay into—Megan and Gabriella appealed to Dr. Bitterbaum and other administrators for help.

But instead of backing them up and standing for their First Amendment freedoms of speech and assembly, Dr. Bitterbaum actively discouraged them from trying again to have the club recognized.

With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, Megan and Gabriella sued SUNY officials and the student government. Less than two weeks later, the student government reversed course and granted them official club recognition.

The greatness of this country isn’t that government officials like public university administrators “silence voices all the time,” it’s that everyone has their say. That’s a lesson SUNY Cortland had to learn in court.

Learn more about what Alliance Defending Freedom is doing to counter censorship at [ Ссылка ].

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