So reports the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, discussing the case we blogged about in May. Here are some excerpts from FIRE’s summary; there are more details, and pointers to the relevant documents, here:
[A] student threatened with punishment for attempting to form a gun-rights group at Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) is finally allowed to distribute pamphlets about the group on campus. The college has also rescinded its unconstitutional policy demanding “prior written approval” for “personal contact with individuals or groups related to non-sponsored college material or events.” … Christine Brashier, who wanted to form a chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC), was told that her pamphlets were unacceptable “solicitation” and that any further efforts would be considered “academic misconduct” ….
After FIRE took Brashier’s case public in May, generating national news coverage, CCAC attorney Mike Adams finally replied to FIRE. Adams assured FIRE that Brashier did not face any disciplinary action and that she did have the right to try to form a SCCC group, but he reported that CCAC would not budge from its unconstitutional policy of prior review of materials….
But, FIRE reports, the policy has finally been changed; “Michael J. Rinaldi, a FIRE Legal Network attorney in the Commercial Litigation Practice Group at Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP in Philadelphia, … successfully pressed CCAC to allow not only Brashier but all CCAC students to exercise their fundamental rights on campus.” Good work.
Disclosure: I will be a keynote speaker at FIRE’s Tenth Anniversary event this month, but my enthusiasm for FIRE’s work of course long preceded that invitation.