Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox has
reversed himself, saying Friday that Andrew Shirvell will face a
disciplinary hearing for attacking gay student Chris Armstrong.
The Detroit Free Press reported
Friday that Cox will look into Shirvell's actions after all.
Shirvell is facing mounting criticism
and calls for his immediate resignation after he appeared on CNN's
Anderson Cooper 360 on Wednesday to defend his actions.
Shirvell began attacking Armstrong
after he was elected president of the University of Michigan at Ann
Arbor Student Assembly in April. He's
criticized and belittled Armstrong at Chris
Armstrong Watch,
a website he runs, now sealed off behind a password protected page.
The University of Michigan has banned
Shirvell from its campus. And Armstrong, 21, has filed a personal
protection order against him.
Earlier this week, Cox called
Shirvell's actions “offensive,” but defended his right to express
his opinions.
“He's clearly a bully. Absolutely,”
Cox, a Republican, told Anderson Cooper. “And is he using the
Internet to be a bully? Yes. But is that protected under the First
Amendment of the United States Constitution? Yes.”
Cox now reasons that the university's
actions, among other things, justifies disciplinary action.
“Standing outside anyone's home in
the middle of the night … is not an action he would recommend to
any state employee,” John Sellek, a Cox spokesman, told the Detroit
Free Press.
University officials and students have
rallied to Armstrong's side. Its president, Mary Sue Coleman,
decried the attacks in a statement: “As a community we must not and
will not accept displays of intolerance.”
Nearly
13,000 people had joined the Facebook group We Support Chris
Armstrong as of Saturday.
“Chris, your mother and I are
thinking of you every minute,” Steve Armstrong wrote. “We cannot
begin to express the pride we feel in your strength, intelligence and
leadership.”