College is a time to think, to learn, to challenge others’ ideas, and to have your ideas challenged in turn. So thought Chike Uzuegbunam when he attempted to share his religious ideas with fellow students and ran into Georgia Gwinnett College’s “speech zone” policy.
Chike decided to share his beliefs, through one‐on‐one conversations and handouts, in a large plaza outside the library. Campus police ordered him to stop. They informed him that he could only speak in designated “speech zones.” Chike applied for permission to use a zone, but could only speak briefly before campus police again accosted him. This time he was told that his speech was “disorderly conduct,” which is any speech that causes discomfort, as judged subjectively by whoever might be listening. The police threatened Chike with prosecution and he was frightened into silence.
As a public college, Georgia Gwinnett is bound by the First Amendment not to abridge speech. But the school cordoned off the “free and open expression of divergent points of view” into two miniscule areas of campus, which were only available a few hours a day on weekdays and required a three‐day advanced reservation. The college had unfettered discretion in approving who may speak and when and how.
Not stymied, Chike and Joseph Bradford—another student discouraged from speaking by the speech code—traded their soapboxes for jury boxes and took the school to court. When challenging unconstitutional speech policies, students may ask for two things: an injunction preventing the school from enforcing the policy against them going forward and money damages for the harm the policy has already done to them.
Read more at https://www.cato.org/blog/colleges-shouldnt-be-able-get-away-violating-student-speech-rights
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