RICHMOND, Va. ― The latest in a string of successful court challenges to college “free-speech zones” is unfolding in Virginia, where lawyers are negotiating a settlement in the case of a student who was barred from preaching on campus.
The Virginia Community College System has agreed to suspend its student demonstrations policy in response to a lawsuit filed by Thomas Nelson Community College student Christian Parks. Both sides have asked a federal judge in Norfolk to put the case on hold until May 2 while a new policy and settlement details are negotiated.
Judicial history and recent legislative developments suggested Parks had a good chance of prevailing. Over the last dozen years, several similar policies establishing restrictive speech zones at public colleges have been invalidated by courts or changed by officials to settle lawsuits alleging violation of students’ First Amendment rights. And on April 4, Gov. Terry McAuliffe signed legislation limiting public colleges’ restraint on student expression.
“Coast to coast, these kinds of restrictions on student speech are a widespread problem,” said Parks’ attorney, David Hacker of the Christian legal advocacy organization Alliance Defending Freedom.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education says about six in 10 colleges nationwide have policies that violate First Amendment rights ― and about one in six impose “free speech zones” like the policy at issue in the Virginia case ― even though such restrictions rarely survive constitutional challenges.
In 2002, West Virginia University dropped its free-speech zone policy after being sued by a civil liberties organization. Two years later, a federal judge struck down Texas Tech’s policy establishing a 20-foot-wide gazebo as a free-speech zone. Last year, Des Moines Area Community College abandoned a policy restricting student leaflet-distribution activities to a table in the student center. And earlier this year, Modesto Junior College in California agreed to drop its free-speech zone and pay $50,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a student who was barred from distributing copies of the U.S. Constitution on Constitution Day.
Free-speech advocates find it troubling that, despite the court rulings, many public colleges persist in squelching student expression.
