We’ve been rough on Jeff Sessions in recent months. And the attorney general has deserved every bit of criticism we’ve thrown his way.

But this week Sessions finally got it right, delivering a spot on message about free speech on college campuses and warning that American universities are shuffling toward becoming “echo chamber(s) of political correctness and homogeneous thought.”

Anyone who has read reports about the growing level of legal ignorance and political intolerance on college campuses should be alarmed. According to a recent survey, 44 percent of college students don’t believe that the First Amendment protects hate speech. A majority think it’s OK to shout down a speaker to prevent their message from reaching an audience. Most alarmingly, 20 percent believe that it’s acceptable to use violence to oppose speech they don’t agree with.

This is not acceptable. This level of ignorance and intolerance threatens the American way of life.

Something must be done, and if Jeff Sessions is the man for the job, then so be it. He certainly hit all the right notes in his remarks at Georgetown University’s School of Law on Tuesday.

One caveat to our praise: Sessions has also shown himself to be the most politically-motivated attorney general in recent memory. And his unseemly predeliction for promoting outdated, ineffective and draconian Justice Department policies and procedures has been on display from the moment he assumed his role in President Donald Trump’s cabinet.

In short, there’s every reason to be skeptical that Sessions’ message isn’t what it seems. He is a deeply flawed messenger.

However, as long as the attorney general sticks by what he said at Georgetown University — he promised the department would “enforce federal law, defend free speech, and protect students’ free expression from whatever end of the political spectrum it may come,” — then he has our unwavering support. Because he is absolutely correct.

Here’s the keynote moment from Sessions’ remarks on Tuesday: “There are those who will say that certain speech isn’t deserving of protection. They will say that some speech is hurtful — even hateful ... but the right of free speech does not exist only to protect the ideas upon which most of us agree.”

If Sessions can effectively defend that ideal then we will all be in his debt. But if it becomes clear that he is actually more interested in defending and promoting certain types of speech than all speech — if this becomes an exercise in simply carving out more “safe spaces” rather than returning campuses to open forums for ideas and viewpoints — then he will have confirmed our worst fears about his motivations and character.

Until that happens, though, the attorney general deserves the country’s full support on this matter.