Free Speech Groundhog Day | Another Assault on Liberty from UH System
- Abbra Green
- Apr 19
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 20
The University of Hawaii Systems is once again silencing the peaceful petitioning of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) advocates. On April 7, 2026, YAL State Chair and Libertarian Party of Hawaii Chair Austin Martin was helping a student gather signatures to reform campus weapons policies. Campus security demanded they seek prior permissions or otherwise seclude their activities into a designated free speech area.
When they stood their ground and invoked the First Amendment, administrators admitted they would need to “review the policy.” Despite the blatant acknowledgement that university officials do not understand their own rules, they called the Hawaii Police Department anyway, and issued a trespass warning. Very shortly after the advocates left campus, the community college sent a warning message to all students cautioning them to notify authorities if they saw Austin Martin.
Dusting Off the Old Script
It is the exact same unconstitutional playbook the UH system used and lost in 2014. Back then, UH Hilo YAL leaders Merritt Burch and Anthony Vizzone set up a table in the Campus Center Plaza during a university event. They offered free copies of the U.S. Constitution and liberty literature. Director of Student Affairs Ellen Kusano ordered them to stay behind the table and to stop approaching anyone. When the students cited their constitutional rights, she replied, “It’s not about your rights in this case, it’s about the University policy that you can’t approach people.”
Then, the university doubled down with an email to every student organization: “RISOs may not approach people to solicit information… each person should be able to freely choose whether to listen to your solicitation or not.” They went as far as to herd students into a tiny “free speech zone” that covered just 0.26% of campus. All of this was justified by the broad Board of Regents rule (§ 20-13-7) that banned “solicitation” anywhere on campus and, at the time, gave administrators total discretion on how to define the term
The students sued, resulting in the university agreeing to a settlement in 2014 and adopting Executive Policy EP 10.206 (effective December 1, 2014), which requires campuses to protect non-commercial speech. The current official policy, still posted on the UH Hilo website, could not be clearer:
“Campuses will implement the solicitation policy as set forth in Section 20-13-7 of the Administrative Rules for the University of Hawaiʻi in a manner to permit students to approach others on campus and to distribute non-commercial literature such as petitions, circulars, leaflets, newspapers in all areas generally available to students and the community.”
Petitioning to change campus policy is definitively constitutionally protected and non-commercial speech. Yet here we are in 2026, and the same campus, under the same UH system, is treating signature gathering for self-defense rights as if it were criminal.
Inexcusable Parallels
The pattern is unmistakable. The University of Hawaii Systems implemented textbook institutional DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim & Offender) to evade accountability for violating constitutional rights:
Deny: Administrators deny responsibility, and deny wrongdoing, and deny constitutional rights. Administrators in both instances denied any First Amendment violation by deliberately mislabeling protected political petitioning and literature distribution as “soliciting” or “commercial activity,” The exact same semantic gaslighting used in 2014 to shut down Constitution handouts is used in 2026 to stop self-defense petitions, even though the university’s own post-2014 policy explicitly protects this activity. This stage has the effect of predisposing observers to side with a specific manufactured narrative.
Attack: They moved to marginalize, silence, and remove advocates from campus. Peaceful advocates were intimidated through prior-approval demands from the Board of Regents, limiting what areas they could use their rights in, detention threats, trespass warnings, and police calls.
Reverse Victim & Offender: They reversed roles by positioning themselves as the noble protector of the heckler’s “comfort”. They characterized speech as “harassment”, tactically claiming that is making others feel uncomfortable. In 2026 a campus-wide alert was blasted, defaming the Chairman. The goal of this stage is to cast the actual victim as the aggressors who cause “intimidation” or “uncomfortable feelings” It was the same heckler’s veto that justified both the 2014 and 2026 First Amendment violations.
This is a deliberate, repeating institutional tactic to suppress liberty.
Déjà Vu for Free Speech
UH Systems lost the 2014 fight, revised its policies, and publicly committed to constitutional compliance. Yet mid-level administrators either never got the memo or feel entitled to ignore it. Either way, the results are the same. Taxpayer dollars are being wasted on police calls, potential lawsuits, and the systematic suppression of speech.
The right to keep and bear arms is fundamental to self-defense and personal liberty. The First Amendment is not optional on any public grounds. No government bureaucrat gets to decide whose message is too uncomfortable to be heard, and the heckler’s veto has no place in a free society. The administration should be providing mandatory First Amendment training for all campus security and staff until this pattern ceases. They should have already implemented their clear, system-wide directive ending the weaponization of free speech. Hawaii’s students deserve better than Groundhog Day for liberty. The University of Hawaii Systems owes taxpayers full and immediate respect for the Constitution.
The Libertarian Party of Hawaii will continue to stand with every student, every group, and every citizen who refuses to let government officials treat the Bill of Rights as a suggestion. Free speech and self-defense are not privileges, they are inherent in every Hawaiian.
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