VICTORY! Campus "Free Speech Zones" Will Be Eliminated at UAH
School settles lawsuit, sending a clear message to other state schools in Alabama
The University of Alabama in Huntsville will eliminate its “free speech zones” and the requirement for students to obtain a permit days before speaking on campus, according to a settlement agreement with the university and a student who sued the school for violating his rights under the Alabama Campus Free Speech Act.
“Alabama state law guarantees that all students at public universities can freely speak outdoors on campus grounds,” said Tyson Langhofer, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, the group representing the student, Joshua J. Greer. “We commend the University of Alabama in Huntsville for doing the right thing by amending its policy to respect students’ free speech rights.”
The Alabama Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s dismissal of Greer’s lawsuit late last year, sending it back to the local circuit level. In their ruling, justices predicted the student would “at least partially prevail” because the school’s policy “plainly violates” state law.
I covered the issue extensively in my four-part series “Silence in the South?” last year, before the Supreme Court heard the case:
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
This is not only a victory for students in Alabama. It’s also a victory for free speech across our entire nation, as this decision will be cited by others in their efforts to defend our freedoms.
And it goes to show that the law is on the side of free speech.
Never surrender it.
(J. Pepper Bryars is Alabama’s only reader-supported conservative journalist. You can support his writing by subscribing at https://jpepper.substack.com/subscribe.)