Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions elaborated on the Department of Justice’s initiative to take on public institutions that have placed limits on the freedom of speech.

Sessions told host Tucker Carlson that could even come in the form of a lawsuit against these institutions if they were to ignore efforts to fight against those institutions that limit the right to speak on public campuses.

Partial transcript as follows:

CARLSON: Well, universities across the United States, hospital administrators and violent protesters have made it difficult, sometimes impossible, for dissident students, those who disagree with the prevailing views, to say what they think in public. It’s annoying, the question is, is it also illegal on public campuses? Well, today Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a plan to intervene.

Mr. Attorney General, thanks for joining us.

JEFF SESSIONS, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Thank you.

CARLSON: So what is the problem you’re seeking to address with this initiative?

SESSIONS: We have too much suppression of free and open speech on college campuses today. Particularly conservatives are being silenced in many ways. Controversial speakers are being blocked. You know the veto by the heckler who threatens to protest and disrupt the speech so the college may withdraw the speaker’s invitation so they won’t be a disturbance. These kinds of things really threaten the entire educational system in my view — the integrity of it.

We have a heritage of free speech. It’s in our Constitution. It’s deeply embedded in our whole approach to life and we need to push back. And so we’re going to push back. Some of these actions can be a violation of Civil Rights. You have First Amendment rights in this country to speak and sometimes those rights can be impacted. The Department of Justice will take what steps we can to make sure that these zones, these colleges don’t create limiting zones for our free speech.

CARLSON: I think they give up many occasions where the Government has moved into curtail free speech rights. Under the Woodrow Wilson Administration, for example, people were sent to prison for protesting the war or whatever. Can you think of other examples of the Justice Department moving in to ensure free speech rights?

SESSIONS: Well I’m not able to remember that, Tucker. I just don’t remember any situation which we’ve gone to a point where speech is threatened. But I will say this, back in the Civil Rights days, a lot of areas in the South attempted to silence voices that were against segregation. So that was a time that the Federal Government in many ways spoke and I think many ways spoke on free speech issues too.

But it’s an important issue. The trends have gone oddly don’t you think, from a time when we had a universal recognition that people should be able to express themselves freely and openly to a time today where we’ve drifting back to trying to block people from having their voices heard.

CARLSON: What can these are private institutions most of them or many of them. What can the Federal Government do?

SESSIONS: Well we’re focusing primarily on the public institutions. Thirty-three percent of public institutions have some sort of speech codes that constrict freedom of speech as I think most people would define it under the First Amendment. So this is a troubling trend. And so the First Amendment applies to public colleges and universities and of course, private colleges.

We want to call out and talk to college presidents, deans, faculty, trustees, to say make sure that you’re not discriminating in any way against people’s right to speak or are discriminating against them academically or otherwise if they have the courage to defend their beliefs.

CARLSON: What sort of action are you prepared to take if they ignore you?

SESSIONS: Well, we could intervene and possibly even file lawsuits but we will be intervening this week filing a Statement of Interest which the United States Government is entitled to do in a case involving a constriction of free speech that we believe is important and we will be filing a brief to the court explaining why we think this is an important on national rights.

CARLSON: So, you’re hearing a debate arising this week about free speech in the wake of the President’s demands the NFL fire players who protest the American flag and other symbols of the country. Do you think that his remarks contravene the spirit of the First Amendment?

SESSIONS: Absolutely not. The President of the United States has free speech. He believes and I believe that people should take a moment before a football game and stand for the National Anthem is played. What’s wrong with that? It’s not political. It’s not an affirmation of Trump or Hilary Clinton or any other agenda. It’s simply an affirmation of respect for the United States of America and this great heritage of freedom and for these football players, prosperity that they have.

So, I think that’s a perfectly appropriate thing for the President to say. They have a right. We have no legal case to condemn a person, a football player who doesn’t stand. The owners may have, you know, rights to deal with the employees on the football field. But, so, I think they have all the rights every American does to speak out. They’ve got access to the internet.

They have all kinds of ways to express their own opinions, but I think every American, no matter what their views on the issues, should stand for America, should salute the flag. I think otherwise, we don’t have the kind of nation that’s healthy that we need to have to be strong and to be able to have contentious debates within it.

CARLSON: What do you think it’s about? Why, what do you think that some of the most successful people in our society would be taking a public stand against symbols of the country itself?

SESSIONS: First my thought is, they haven’t thought it through. They haven’t realized that what they’re doing is actually demeaning the country not some politician and they disagree with. Not some issue that they feel strongly about. How is that the right way to express such a view? You should be able to articulate your view, advocate your view, defend your view against people who disagree. That’s what America’s about.

Not demeaning the country for which we’re all blessed to live, in which we’re blessed to live. So I think it’s a big mistake. They haven’t thought it through. Maybe they haven’t been taught properly in the universities and colleges about what this means and why, historically, nations are important. They function — nations are how people are governed, how their lives are affected. So, we need to be loyal to the great nation that we have in my opinion and standing up for the National Anthem is certainly not too much to ask.

CARLSON: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, thanks.

SESSIONS: Thank you.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor