Republican lawmakers are wading into the intensifying debate over free speech on campus, proposing legislation in at least half a dozen states to regulate student protests and discipline hecklers.

Inspired by a spate of recent demonstrations that shut down controversial conservative speakers at universities from Vermont to California, Republicans are seeking more formal punishments for students who disrupt speeches, including expulsion.

“All across the nation and here at home, we’ve seen protesters trying to silence different viewpoints,” Speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly Robin Vos, a Republican, said in a statement last week, announcing the Free Speech on Campus Act. ” We need more speech, not less; it’s time to put in appropriate measures to ensure all speech is protected at our universities.”

In the past few months, schools across the country have struggled to handle protests and counter-protests that derailed events featuring controversial speakers. Conservative writer Charles Murray was shouted down and then physically confronted by protesters who surrounded his car at Vermont’s Middlebury College. Peaceful protests turned violent and resulted in more than $100,000 in damage at the University of California, Berkeley, forcing the cancellation of an event with far-right pundit Milo Yiannopoulos. Last week, conservative pundit Ann Coulter canceled her event at Berkeley, calling it a “dark day for free speech in America” after a lengthy back-and-forth that culminated in the Berkeley College Republicans suing the university.

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