In the name of fighting for last fall's Fox political special, The War On Christmas, the Georgia Legislature may be about to give unfettered free speech to Georgia's schoolchildren.

Writing in PeachPundit, as well as his own blog, AtlantaPublicAffairs, DecaturGuy points out that the amended HB 950 bill gives protection to hate speech.

The original version protected speech “relating to the celebration or observance of any public or legal holiday, as provided in Code Section 1-4-1.”

The amended version which passed yesterday protects students and employees of public schools “in their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression, including, but not limited to, verbal expressions relating to the celebration or observance of any public or legal holiday, as provided in Code Section 1-4-1.”

In the name of public safety, and to protect little ones, schools are given less free speech protection in law than the public square. The new bill changes that. According to DecaturGuy, a kid could walk in with a t-shirt reading "I Hate Jesus" or "I Love Satan" under the bill and the school could do nothing about it.

Conservative blogger Dignan of Lawnrangers chimed into the comments to say that sponsor Clay Cox should be "booted out of office" for sponsoring such a stupid bill, illustrating the point on his own blog with a picture from the movie "Christmas Story" of Ralphie with his mouth clamped around a bar of Lifebuoy soap.

Somewhere an ACLU attorney is holding his breath and hoping the Governor signs this thing.