Protesters among 130 students blocked from attending Jeff Sessions' event on free speech

Students and faculty joined in protest during the speech and cited the 'hypocrisy' of the event

Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks about free speech at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC on 26 September. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Ahead of Attorney Jeff Sessions lecture at Georgetown University's Law School on free speech, 130 students had their invitations rescinded.

Law students were informed over the weekend that Mr Sessions would "give remarks about free speech on college campuses".

​Greyson Wallis, a Georgetown law student, told the Washington Post said the university “seemed like they were rescinding those invites because they didn’t want any sort of hostile environment, and I can understand not wanting to have a violent environment, but that’s not at all what we were trying to do".

"Unfortunately, his message of opening yourself up to the other side isn’t going to reach the people that he wants it to reach. Because they weren’t allowed to be in here today," she said.

Several students had signed up for the event through an official school website and there were no requirements beyond being a student at the university.

The evening before the 26 September event an email was sent to approximately 130 students, which read: "the email you subsequently received indicating you have a seat for the event was in error. Our records indicate that you were not part of the Center [for the Constitution]'s student invitation list, which includes student fellows of the Center (students who signed up to attend events sponsored by the Center) and students enrolled in the classes taught this semester by the Center's Director, Professor Randy Barnett."

Several student groups - and a third of the faculty - have signed a letter regarding the "hypocrisy" of having Mr Sessions speak about the issue.

The letter cited several examples of how Mr Sessions' ability to speak on the issue of free speech is belied by his and the Trump administration's actions.

The Department of Justice is putting an activist, Desiree Fairooz, who laughed at Mr Sessions' Senate confirmation hearing on trial for her outburst for the second time.

A judge had actually thrown out the case against Ms Fairooz in July, but a new trial has been scheduled for 13 November on charges of disorderly and disruptive conduct.

The letter also cited Donald Trump's comments about the National Football League at a Huntsville, Alabama political rally on 22 September.

The President had said, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a b**** off the field right now! Out! He’s fired,'" using his now infamous line from his reality television programme The Apprentice.

He was referring to NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who has no clear connection to the special election for US Senate seat or Republican Luther Strange's bid for the seat that Mr Trump was there to support.

Kaepernick, currently a free agent without a team, was the first player to kneel during the national anthem ahead of a game while he played for the San Francisco 49ers. His protest stemmed from a slew of police-involved shooting deaths of several young black men across the US and sparked controversy among fans.

He said: "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of colour."

Jim Hanson, president of Washington DC-based think tank Security Studies Group, took to Twitter to say Mr Trump's remarks and Mr Sessions' ability to speak about free speech were not equivalent.

Daniel Blauser, a third year law student at Georgetown, pointed out to the DCist website the "complete irony of the situation: in a speech about free speech on campus that's trying to decry college safe spaces, Georgetown and Attorney General Sessions are creating a safe space".

During the speech, dozens of students and faculty protested against the speech outside the building by taking a knee and locking arms as several NFL players had done ahead of their Sunday games while the national anthem was sung.

Some wore duct tape over their mouths and carrying signs reading “Sessions is afraid of questions" and "Free speech is not hate speech".

A spokeswoman for the Law School, Tanya Weinberg, said that at events like Mr Sessions' speech "we designate protest areas to allow free expression on campus in a manner that upholds safety and security and minimises potential disruptions to learning. Additionally, students in the auditorium were allowed to protest in a way that did not disrupt the event."