In Major Announcement, FIRE Says It Will Sue Every College With a Speech Code Until Speech Codes Die Forever

The Foundation for Individual
Rights in Education announced a major litigation effort
Tuesday against universities that maintain clearly illegal speech
codes.

With help from the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine, FIRE is
suing several universities that manifestly and unconstitutionally
deprive their students of First Amendment rights.

“Universities’ stubborn refusal to relinquish their speech
codes must not be tolerated,” said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff
during a press conference.

For now, suits have been filed against Ohio University,
Iowa State University, Chicago State University, and Citrus College
in California. These universities have all trampled students’ free
speech rights, according to FIRE.

Lukianoff explained that FIRE would not hesitate to expand
the suits until all universities abandon their speech codes, which
were ruled unconstitutional decades ago but have endured at more
than 50 percent of colleges, according to the foundation’s
research.

An OU student provided an illustrative example at the
press conference. His student rights organization, OU Students
Defending Students, ran afoul of university administrators because
he created T-shirts for the organization that featured a risque
phrase (“We help get you off”).

“Unpopular speech at Ohio University is discouraged at
every turn,” said the student. “[Administrators’] efforts to create
a friendlier campus is undoubtedly doing the opposite.”

Lukianoff explained that FIRE has been reluctant to become
primarily a litigation organization, but its previous efforts
to persuade colleges to forego censorship have been inadequate, he
said.

During a Q and A session, Lukianoff was asked why he thoght now
was the time for such a litigation effort. He explained that the
massive expansion of college bureaucracy poses a grave threat to
students’ rights. There are now more administrators on campuses
than ever before—far more bureaucrats than teachers, in fact—which
has led to a “mindless application of ridiculous rules,” he
said.