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Campus speech lawsuits in PA
Another development that should not be overlooked in the wake of the Summers scandal at Harvard: lawsuits filed this week by the Alliance Defense Fund alleging that both Penn State and Temple University unconstitutionally restrict student expression.
Penn State forbids "intolerance," which it defines as an "attitude, feeling or belief in furtherance of which an individual acts to intimidate, threaten or show contempt for other individuals or groups based on characteristics such as age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, political belief, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation or veteran status." Penn State also forbids "unwelcome banter, teasing, or jokes that are derogatory, or depict members of a protected class in a stereotypical and demeaning manner."
David French, who recently left FIRE to work for ADF, explained to the Associated Press that such policies clearly attempts to limit what students can and cannot say. He told The Philadelphia Inquirer that these suits are "the first salvo" in the Alliance Defense Fund's national campaign to fight colleges and universities that have "incorporated ideology into their bureaucracy."
The plaintiff in the Penn State case is a conservative student who worries that the universities policy statements on intolerance could be used to punish him for views that others find offensive. The Temple case centers on a history masters' student who claims his professors delayed his degree multiple times as retaliation for his pro-military politics. Both plaintiffs testified last month at the academic freedom hearings held at Temple.
French told the Chronicle of Higher Education that he is spearheading the lawsuits now in part because he believes those hearings were misguided:
"The goal here is to open up free speech for all students," said David A. French, a lawyer for the group and head of its new Center for Academic Freedom. Mr. French is a former president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a watchdog group that has fought to do away with what it has described as speech codes on college campuses.Since "the eyes of the academic world" have been focused on Pennsylvania as a result of academic-freedom hearings being held throughout the state, Mr. French said, "we wanted to open this latest round of speech-code litigation in Pennsylvania." He testified in September before a committee of state lawmakers who were holding those hearings. He said that the lawmakers should examine university speech codes, but they have focused on institutions' academic-freedom policies instead.
FIRE has conducted several successful legal campaigns against unconstitutional speech codes, and French appears to be adapting the tactics he used there to his new position at the Alliance Defense Fund.
On the face of it, the masters' student's case appears less clear cut than the case against Penn State. Unless it's possible to document in writing that the student's professors really did try to harm his career advancement because they objected to his beliefs, this one will deteriorate into a he said-she said scenario that benefits no one and proves nothing. One hopes some damning and unimpeachable documentation does underwrite the case.
These will be cases to watch.
Posted by acta online at February 26, 2006 05:20 PM
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