Gov. Greg Abbott Celebrates End of ‘Bias Response Team’ at U. of Texas

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is celebrating the end of the University of Texas’s bias response team, a university mechanism that has been used to suppress politically incorrect speech. A similar “bias response” team at the University of Michigan was shut down after a First Amendment activist group alleged that it stifled speech on campus.

According to a local ABC affiliate, the University of Texas at Austin has announced that it will officially disband its bias response team. Universities and colleges around the nation have instituted “bias response” teams to stifle politically incorrect speech on campus.

The bias response team was shut down in response to a lawsuit filed by an activist group called Speech First, which defends First Amendment rights. Although the bias response team was shuttered as part of a settlement agreement with the group, the university has reserved a right to establish an alternative system to monitor offensive speech on campus.

Gov. Greg Abbott took to social media to celebrate the university’s decision to shut down its bias response team.

Political correctness is being ended at the University of Texas at Austin.

UT agreed to disband its absurd PC police and end policies that suppress speech on campus.

This is consistent with the campus free speech law I signed last session. https://t.co/qXKot20r49

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) December 26, 2020

Breitbart News reported in October 2019 that the University of Michigan had shut down its bias response team as part of a settlement agreement with a First Amendment activist group. In a statement, the United States Department of Justice argued that the university encouraged students to report offensive speech.

“It encourages students to report any suspected instances of bias, advising them: ‘[t]he most important indication of bias is your own feelings.'”  According to the plaintiff, the Bias Response Team has responded to more than 150 alleged incidents of bias in the last year,” the department wrote in its statement.

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more campus updates.