Publicly Funded Connecticut Law School Holds Event Asking If Children's Interests Are "best accomplished through their parents"
The University of Connecticut School of Law's symposium on March 31st will “explore the complex issues surrounding the role of parental rights in advancing progressive goals"
The event is exclusively framed in the context of “advancing progressive goals”
The West Hartford Republican Town Committee filed open records requests and started a Petition · Support Intellectual Diversity at University of Connecticut · Change.org
CT Liberty Rally is hosting a Parental Rights Rally at the UConn Law Campus in Hartford, this Friday, March 31st at 8:00 am
The vast majority of CT Republican and Democratic officials have not commented
The day-long symposium of the Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal asks “Are Parental Rights Always in the Best Interest of Children?” and will “explore the complex issues surrounding the role of parental rights in advancing progressive goals while at the same time examine how parental rights are being used to undermine racial, gender, and LQBTQ equality….The discussion will also include how children’s interests can and should be represented, and whether that is best accomplished through their parents'' (emphasis added). The publicly funded law school is not shy about pushing a blatantly progressive message into the homes of taxpayers of any and all political backgrounds.
In response, the West Hartford Republican Town Committee has filed open records requests concerning the symposium. Their inquiries concern the budget, the mailing list and any communications or coordination between UCONN admin/faculty and public officials, political parties/organizations and lobbying groups. There are many other questions that should be asked by Connecticut’s media outlets, such as:
Why is UCONN Law spending public funds advertising political messaging to the public?
Why is such political messaging framed in a way that exclusively promotes one political ideology?
Are the Public Interest Law Journal and UCONN Law leadership even interested in hearing from legal scholars who support public policy that underscores the notion that children’s interests are best represented through their parents, and not the government or school employees?
The three speakers appear to exclusively consist of progressive individuals. Melissa Murray, the Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at NYU School of Law, will be giving the keynote address. As evidenced by her exhaustive resume, Prof. Murray is an accomplished left-wing legal scholar. She previously served on the Board of Directors of the progressive American Constitution Society and is considered to be in contention for a judgeship from President Biden. She has written numerous books, including Feminist Jurisprudence and Reproductive Rights and Justice Stories, as well as articles, such as Legitimizing Illegitimacy in Constitutional Law and Race-ing Roe: Reproductive Rights, Racial Justice and the Battle for Roe v. Wade”. Her full resume is available on NYU’s website: MELISSA MURRAY (nyu.edu).
The West Hartford RTC filed FOIA requests the first week of March but has only received one response so far: confirmation that $3,500.00 was spent printing 6,800 postcards that were mailed out to the surrounding public. The West Hartford RTC has also started a petition supporting Intellectual Diversity at the University of Connecticut. The below is excerpted from the petition: Petition · Support Intellectual Diversity at University of Connecticut · Change.org
“As concerned parents, citizens, and taxpayers, we worry that the only perspectives that are being represented on UConn’s campus are those — as the symposium description describes it — “advancing progressive goals.” Having a taxpayer-funded organization like UConn send mail to regular citizens, well outside of the UConn community, pushing such a message of family separation rightly alarmed those who received them. In addition, the symposium’s clearly stated political mission raised questions about why taxpayer funded organizations are using those funds to promote a specifically partisan political message to the public at large.
As concerned tax paying citizens, we would like to know what the University of Connecticut is doing to promote intellectual diversity on campus such that perspectives promoting family separation are not the only ones represented. Additionally, we would like an explanation of UConn policies around using university funding to contact the public at large and how such policies allow for taxpayer funding to be used for political messaging to the general public.
To reiterate, though the individuals and organizations below may or may not disagree with the perspectives of the symposium, we believe it should go on as scheduled. Our concerns focus on the communication with the general public, and UConn’s efforts to ensure a diversity of views are represented on campus, especially when the taxpayer dollars of Nutmeggers of all political persuasions are involved.”
Meanwhile, with the limited exception of Kevin Rennie’s Daily Ructions (UConn Law symposium will ask, “Are parental rights always in the best interest of the children?” This may not go well for parents. — Daily Ructions), Connecticut media has been largely silent. Thus, it’s unclear exactly how most Democratic or Republican politicians feel about taxpayer money funding this one-sided socio-political forum. However, House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora criticized the event back in February, stating
“I have no doubt that a lot of Connecticut families will find it troubling to see our state’s flagship university promoting ideology that contemplates somebody being a better judge of a child’s best interest than that child’s parents,” said Candelora, whose district includes North Branford as well as parts of Durham, East Haven and Guilford. “This is, unfortunately, the pervasive attitude among antagonistic Democrat lawmakers who continue their efforts to drive wedges between parents and their children, and this apparent nexus in messaging between our higher education system and the legislature is alarming.”
CT Liberty Rally, CT Parents.org and Unmask Our Kids CT will be holding a rally the day of the event (Friday, March 31st) at UCONN Law’s campus in Hartford at 8:00 a.m. More information is available at: Parental Rights Rally • UConn Law Hartford • Fri 3.31.23 @ 8:00am | CT Liberty Rally.
The Connecticut Civics Institution, Inc. is a registered non-profit organization committed to increasing civic responsibility and debate, government transparency, political accountability and the promotion of the values outlined in the U.S. Constitution. If you enjoyed this post, please share and subscribe for more.