As a native of Toledo, Ohio (Go Mud Hens!), I guess I should be happy that my home state is so flush with cash that it had $200,000 in taxpayer funds
to waste in the latest doomed attempt by a public university to violate
the constitutional rights of its students. Since 2007, the Foundation
for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE,
where I work) has been warning the University of Cincinnati (UC) that
confining student speech to a tiny “Free Speech Area” that covered a mere 0.1%
of the school’s 137-acre campus is unconstitutional. UC was dead
serious about enforcing this policy — the school actually threatened
that any UC students who dared to express themselves outside of that
spot would face trespassing charges and criminal prosecution.
On Wednesday, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio put an end to UC’s blatantly unconstitutional policy. Judge Timothy S. Black found in favor of the UC chapter of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) and its president, Christopher Morbitzer, issuing a permanent injunction against UC’s shameless restrictions on student expression. The ruling prohibits UC from limiting student speech in outdoor areas unless the constraint is “narrowly tailored to serve a compelling University interest.”
UC had many opportunities to avoid this defeat. It could have changed its policy when FIRE selected it as “Speech Code of the Month” in 2007. It could have taken its First Amendment obligations seriously when YAL approached UC in February, asking for permission to talk to students across campus about a time-sensitive, statewide ballot initiative. It could have re-examined its position when YAL and Morbitzer, in collaboration with FIRE and Ohio’s 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, challenged the “Free Speech Area” in federal district court. It could have listened to the public’s negative response when UC topped FIRE’s 2012 list of the 12 Worst Colleges for Free Speech in March. Instead, reportedly with the agreement of the Ohio attorney general’s office, UC wasted $200,000 trying to uphold a clearly unconstitutional policy.
On Wednesday, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio put an end to UC’s blatantly unconstitutional policy. Judge Timothy S. Black found in favor of the UC chapter of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) and its president, Christopher Morbitzer, issuing a permanent injunction against UC’s shameless restrictions on student expression. The ruling prohibits UC from limiting student speech in outdoor areas unless the constraint is “narrowly tailored to serve a compelling University interest.”
UC had many opportunities to avoid this defeat. It could have changed its policy when FIRE selected it as “Speech Code of the Month” in 2007. It could have taken its First Amendment obligations seriously when YAL approached UC in February, asking for permission to talk to students across campus about a time-sensitive, statewide ballot initiative. It could have re-examined its position when YAL and Morbitzer, in collaboration with FIRE and Ohio’s 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, challenged the “Free Speech Area” in federal district court. It could have listened to the public’s negative response when UC topped FIRE’s 2012 list of the 12 Worst Colleges for Free Speech in March. Instead, reportedly with the agreement of the Ohio attorney general’s office, UC wasted $200,000 trying to uphold a clearly unconstitutional policy.
No comments:
Post a Comment