The Brisbane Times reports that: A Queensland University of Technology lawyer[,] … Alex Stewart[,] has taken leave from his non-academic position as a QUT [Queensland University of Technology] commercial contracts lawyer after controversy erupted over a YouTube clip in which he smokes self-made cigarettes rolled in pages from the [Koran and the Bible] before rating […]
Archive | Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
A Thought from Prof. Michael McConnell
By Eugene Volokh on August 18, 2010 7:02 pm in Freedom of Association, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
Stanford law professor (and former judge) Michael McConnell, who represented the Christian Legal Society before the Supreme Court in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, e-mails this: I had a mischievous thought, which I thought I would offer to your blog: I have a suggestion for the City of New York City, if it wishes to […]
Third Circuit Strikes Down Another Campus Speech Code
By Eugene Volokh on August 18, 2010 6:39 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
The case is McCauley v. University of the Virgin Islands, decided today. The court holds that the K-12 school cases — “Tinker, Fraser, Hazelwood, Morse, and other decisions involving speech in public elementary and high schools” — “cannot be taken as gospel in cases involving public universities,” and strikes down (at least when applied to […]
Important Case on Public Universities’ Charging Speakers Security Fees (Especially in Anticipation of Possible Hostile Reaction by the Audience)
By Eugene Volokh on July 29, 2010 12:49 am in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
From Sonnier v. Crain (5th Cir. July 27): Sonnier argues … that SLU’s speech policy violates the First Amendment because it gives the University the “sole discretion … in determining both the need for, and the strength of the security” at the public assembly or demonstration, and assesses the cost of additional security on the […]
Content-Neutral Speech Restrictions on Public University Campuses
By Eugene Volokh on July 29, 2010 12:30 am in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
Sonnier v. Crain (5th Cir. July 27) has an interesting discussion, in which the Fifth Circuit panel (by a 2-to-1 vote) defers considerably to universities’ prerogatives, even without deciding that the university locations are not public fora. The appellate court upholds the trial court’s denial of a preliminary injunction of a policy that required all […]
The Ninth Circuit Rodriguez Opinion and Speech in Non-Academic Workplaces
By Eugene Volokh on May 20, 2010 5:01 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
I explain below why the Ninth Circuit’s Rodriguez decision applies to harassment lawsuits brought against private employers. Here I’d like to explain why and how it would apply to non-academic employers. Rodriguez does say that its First Amendment analysis, and its statement that “Without the right to stand against society’s most strongly-held convictions, the marketplace […]
The Ninth Circuit Rodriguez Opinion and Speech in Private Workplaces
By Eugene Volokh on May 20, 2010 4:37 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
The Rodriguez decision arose in a public community college, and it stressed the importance of academic freedom. But I think it would also be relevant to Title VII lawsuits based on speech in non-academic workplaces, and in private workplaces (though not to individually directed insults or sexual propositions). Here let me talk about the private […]
“Free Speech Has Been a Powerful Force for the Spread of Equality Under the Law”;
By Eugene Volokh on May 20, 2010 4:06 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
“we must not squelch that freedom because it may also be harnessed by those who promote retrograde or unattractive ways of thought.” So writes the Ninth Circuit in today’s Rodriguez opinion, in an important holding about the interaction of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. I’ve written before against arguments that First Amendment rights need to […]
Freedom of Speech vs. Workplace Harassment Law — A Big Free Speech Win in the Ninth Circuit
By Eugene Volokh on May 20, 2010 3:44 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
I’ve long written about how workplace harassment law sometimes violates the First Amendment, so I was especially pleased to see today’s Rodriguez v. Maricopa County Community College Dist. (9th Cir.) (written by Chief Judge Kozinski, and joined by retired Justice O’Connor, sitting by designation, and Judge Sandra Ikuta). The entire opinion is much worth reading, […]
Canadian University Restricting Graphic Posters That Compare Abortion to Genocide
By Eugene Volokh on April 21, 2010 1:20 pm in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
From the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: The University of Calgary is threatening to expel a group of students who refused to move a graphic anti-abortion display on campus…. [In november 2008, the group] refused university administrators’ requests to make the posters [of aborted fetuses] — which compared abortion to the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda […]
A Sad Victory for Thuggery in Texas
By Eugene Volokh on March 29, 2010 4:57 pm in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports: A student performance of an excerpt from Corpus Christi, a play positing Jesus Christ as a gay man, was canceled this past Friday at Tarleton State University (TSU) in Texas amid controversy and calls for censorship. The performance of the excerpt, which was to be directed by […]
Pro-Life Speech “Upsetting” and “Not OK” for the Duke University Women’s Center
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports: Duke University’s Women’s Center has canceled an event about motherhood because the sponsor was engaging in pro-life expression elsewhere on campus. A Women’s Center representative told Duke Students for Life (DSFL) that “we have a problem” and an ideological “conflict” with the event, which was supposedly canceled […]
More on Christian Legal Society v. Martinez
By Eugene Volokh on December 21, 2009 10:28 am in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
David French, with whom I’ve been having a very enjoyable discussion about this case, posts further on the subject: I want to focus my response on one item [from Volokh’s previous post] — a point that I believe to be absolutely critical not just to the legal analysis but also the equities of the case. […]
Should Access to Public University Property and Funding Be Treated Differently from Access to Other Public Property and Funding?
By Eugene Volokh on December 15, 2009 12:28 am in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Religion and the Law, Religious Freedom
David French of the Alliance Defense Fund responds further to my posts about Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. I much appreciate David’s thoughtful reactions on this, and I’d like to continue the conversation. Here’s David’s argument slightly abridged: By treating this case as a “government benefits” case, I think Eugene is missing a few vital […]
Christian Legal Society v. Martinez and the Court’s University Speech Decisions
By Eugene Volokh on December 11, 2009 1:20 pm in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Religion and the Law
David French writes at National Review Online: I don’t have time to detail Eugene’s argument in all its complexity, but the one sentence summary is: Public universities are not constitutionally compelled to provide government benefits (like room access and student fee funding) to “discriminatory” Christian student organizations…. [Here is] his post’s primary shortcoming: Eugene cites […]