PARTIAL VICTORY! Alabama Supreme Court Rules Student Can Sue 'Bama over "Free Speech Zones"
Justices send case back to lower court, believe student will "at least partially prevail" in fight against the University of Alabama System
The Alabama Supreme Court just reversed a lower court’s dismissal of a student’s lawsuit claiming that the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s free speech zones violated his rights under the Alabama Campus Free Speech Act.
The case now goes back to be fully argued at the local circuit level, where justices predicted the student will “at least partially prevail” in his case against the school’s policy which the justices also wrote “plainly violates” state law.
At issue is the school’s policy requiring students to submit a detailed application in advance of speaking in outdoor areas of the university, or else keep their speech within the boundaries of certain “defined areas” that some describe as being on the “peripheries of campus.”
“We agree,” wrote the justices in a unanimous opinion, “that the designated areas for spontaneous speech are prohibited ‘free speech zones.’”
Officials from the University of Alabama System had argued that the policy didn’t violate the act because they were granted leeway in determining certain “time, place, and manner restrictions” meant to keep good order on campus. The justices took a dim view of that argument, however, noting that the policy “appears to apply to even a single student wishing to speak on campus.”
School attorneys also argued that even if the policy violated the act, the State Legislature is constitutionally forbidden from interfering with the management of the university, so the Free Speech Act itself is unconstitutional. The justices didn’t decide on that issue, only writing that the argument is “now ripe for the circuit court to consider in the first instance.”
I covered the issue extensively in my four-part series “Silence in the South?” earlier this year:
Part 1 of 4: Alabama Supreme Court to decide if "Free Speech Zones" are legal on public college campuses
Part 2 of 4: State legislators who passed the Alabama Campus Free Speech Act say university leaders and lawyers are "misreading" the intent of their law
Part 3 of 4: University of Alabama System tells high court that Campus Free Speech Act "interferes" and "infringes" on their "autonomy"
Part 4 of 4: Our institutions are being transformed by a wave of recent college graduates who are openly hostile to the concept of free speech
I’ll cover the case again when it’s argued on the circuit level, but let’s hope university officials see the writing on the wall, cut their losses, and scrap these unconstitutional “free speech zones” once and for all.
(J. Pepper Bryars is Alabama’s only reader-supported conservative journalist. You can support his writing by subscribing at https://jpepper.substack.com/subscribe.)