This is great news. The whole concept of free speech zones is antithetical to academia.The College Fix reports:
Trump administration joins legal fight against campus speech zonesFree speech advocacy groups have a new ally: the Trump administration. But not all of them want the allyship.The Justice Department filed a “statement of interest” in a lawsuit against a public college in Georgia that slapped an evangelical student with a “disorderly conduct” charge for proselytizing outside the tiny campus free speech zones, which require reservations and prior review from administrators.In a Tuesday release, the department agreed that the restrictions placed on Chike Uzuegbunam – including a prohibition on speech that “disturbs the … comfort” of people on campus – violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights:
The Justice Department argues the college’s speech policies were not content-neutral, established an impermissible heckler’s veto, and were not narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling government interest.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education said Tuesday that DOJ entered a slam-dunk case, summarizing Georgia Gwinnett College’s defense of its policies:
[I]t should unconstitutionally restrict speech, so it should therefore be allowed to enact further unconstitutional restrictions on speech.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in the same DOJ statement that a “national recommitment to free speech on campus and to ensuring First Amendment rights is long overdue.”
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