A bizarre, unanimous opinion from the Tenth Circuit in Axson-Flynn v. Johnson, 2004 WL 198304 (found via Overlaywered). Ms. Axson-Flynn was accepted into an acting program at the University of Utah. When she auditioned, she told the program directors she would not use the “F” word, take the Lord’s name in vain, or take her clothes off. They accepted her anyway. Once in the program, it became clear that her professors expected her to recite dialogue as written during acting exercises, including the “F” word and other objectionable language, and that the program directors backed them in this expectation. Completely unfair to Ms. Axson-Flynn, given that she had stated upfront her limits. But a violation of her rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion? Nonsense! The Tenth Circuit, however, thinks she deserves a jury trial on these issues, and states that the test for compelled speech for college students should be the same (or perhaps even stricter!) as for high school students, neglecting the facts that (1) college students are adults and (2) college students, to a large extent, choose their classes, while high school students, to a large extent, don’t.
The eminent Prof. Michael Paulsen of the University of Minnesota, who represented Ms. Axson-Flynn, would apparently like to require all universities, public and private, to accommodate the religious sensitivies of acting students: “No university professor has to teach their class in a way that is hostile to an individual’s religious liberty,” Paulsen said. “You can recognize professors’ academic freedom rights, but at the same time recognize that students have freedoms, too.” Like the freedom to require your drama professor to let you conclude Gone With the Wind with “Frankly my dear I don’t give a dang!”? Please. Certainly private universities have their own First Amendment rights to run their acting programs free from government interference, including and especially the censorship that would be involved in bowlderizing language to suit religious sensitivies. [Update: In fairness to Paulsen, I don’t know if he would try to impose the same “religious freedom” rules on a private university he is trying to impose on public University of Utah.] Perhaps Eugene will have more to say about this.
Comments are closed.