You can still exercise your First Amendment rights. You can still protest and demonstrate. But for college students in the state of Ohio, effective immediately, you had better not cross the line.

Republican Ohio Governor Bob Taft signed into law a controversial provision to the state's 2004-2005 budget that will require any state-funded university to immediately expel any student convicted of either rioting or failure to disperse. In addition to being expelled, the state will withhold financial aid to the individual for two years and prohibit the students from re-enrolling in any other state-funded college for a year.

The provision was tacked on to the budget in response to a rash of riots which took place in Columbus, Ohio, following Ohio State University's football win over Michigan on November 23, 2002. In that incident, nearly 50 people were arrested after property and cars were destroyed and more than 100 fires were set, including one to a home.

Opponents of the measure state that while the law should be applied to "riot-related activities," it does not clearly separate a conviction for rioting from one for failure to disperse, a charge that could be handed to spectators or bystanders.

"It's a smack in the face for anyone who wants to protest," Democratic State Senator Bob Hagan told OSU's campus newspaper The Lantern. "I really do feel strongly about it; students have a right to protest, to speak out and to challenge their government and authorities. This bill limits their ability to do all."

While the provision wasn't initially a part of Taft's budget submitted to the Ohio legislature, he does support it. Taft's Press Secretary Orest Holubec said the governor feels the bill is "good policy." Holubec also pointed out that the law could be revisited and enhanced by the state legislature, but that the governor did not feel the punishments in the provision were too harsh.