Student Suing Pierce College for Blocking Campus Distribution of U.S. Constitution
“civil case is currently in the discovery phase”
Several times a year, this becomes an issue on various college campuses. Why?
The College Fix reports:
Lawsuit against college for blocking distribution of U.S. Constitution moves forward
A student at Pierce College in California who claims the college violated his free speech rights by ordering him to cease handing out Spanish-language copies of the U.S. Constitution is getting closer to his day in court.
The civil case is currently in the discovery phase, an important step as the lawsuit winds its way through the system, CNS News reports. This development comes after a federal judge earlier this year refused to toss out the lawsuit against college.
The judge had said plaintiff Kevin Shaw had met the “injury in fact” standard required to bring suit, even though the college hadn’t punished him after he stopped distributing Constitutions outside its tiny free-speech zone.
Shaw (pictured) filed the lawsuit in spring 2017 after he was told to stop by a college administrator because he was not in the campus’s designated “Free Speech Area,” a zone that reportedly measures 616 square feet, a tiny section of the 426-acre campus.
He was also informed that he had to fill out a permit to use the Free Speech Area, which he was not able to obtain until “weeks later,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit, filed in partnership with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, claims restricting speech on campus to free speech zones is “unconstitutionally vague and broad.”
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Comments
The very idea of “free speech zones” is a direct contradiction of the concept of free speech.