Identity of Speakers
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Mike Kehoe
Unaffiliated
OtherGovernor of Missouri
Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
Other
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Incident Political Orientation:
Right wing -
Incident Responses:
State Campus Free Speech Act
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Incident Status:
No litigation
- Was Speech Code incident
Summary
In July 2025, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed Senate Bill 160 into law, securing students’ rights to freely associate on public college campuses. The legislation prohibited public higher education institutions from taking adverse actions against student organizations based on their political, ideological, or religious beliefs. It affirmed that student groups could set their own membership and leadership criteria to ensure alignment with their missions and beliefs. The law also guaranteed that institutions could not deny belief-based student groups any benefits, such as access to campus facilities, communication tools, or funding, that were available to other student organizations.
The bill aimed to prevent viewpoint discrimination on campus and responded to concerns that some universities restricted or punished student groups due to their beliefs. Missouri’s law reflected a broader trend among states to strengthen First Amendment protections for student organizations, joining several others that passed similar measures to safeguard students’ rights to express their beliefs freely and without fear of retaliation.
