ADF Center for Academic Freedom launches new online resource in the fight for free speech at public universities
Center unveils interactive website to empower students, faculty
Monday, Oct 16, 2017
WASHINGTON – College students facing attacks on their freedom of speech will now be able to access practical legal information online. With a mobile-friendly user interface, the Alliance Defending Freedom Center for Academic Freedom’s new website is designed to be the go-to resource for students with questions about their First Amendment freedoms. Explore this new resource at a Facebook Live event Monday at 1:30 p.m. EDT (10:30 a.m. PDT).“Today’s college students are tomorrow’s judges, legislators, teachers, and voters,” said ADF Senior Counsel Casey Mattox, director of the Center for Academic Freedom. “Yet public universities are not only failing to educate the next generation about their First Amendment freedoms, they are actively violating those rights and teaching the next generation that freedom of speech is too dangerous to permit. This new resource will empower students and faculty to know their rights, exercise them, and find free legal information to defend them.”
For more than a decade, the ADF Center for Academic Freedom has been the most active organization defending students’ free speech rights in court. Speech and student activity codes on public campuses have become so increasingly disrespectful of freedom of speech that the center has won 90 percent of its litigated cases. These wins have included some of the most influential free speech victories on campus. The new website details over 300 victories in and out of court and provides a search tool that helps students and other attorneys find out about prior free speech incidents on campuses nationwide.
The site will also provide a key resource to members of the media seeking pleadings, pictures, videos, and other information on the leading free speech cases currently in court. In the last year alone, the ADF Center for Academic Freedom has litigated against a dozen different universities in some of the most high-profile student free speech cases, including the following:
- Young Americans for Liberty members arrested for handing out the U.S. Constitution on a college campus.
- Faculty members organizing a blockade to prevent other students from hearing conservative Ben Shapiro speak at a Young Americans for Freedom event.
- Students for Life members denied recognition and equal access to student activity funding, and a faculty member ordering his students to erase their expression.
The CenterForAcademicFreedom.org site will also educate students and lawmakers about state laws on student free speech—highlighting the need for more protections in most states.
Disclaimer—Not Legal Advice: The choice of lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements. Anyone seeking legal advice is encouraged to personally consult with a licensed attorney as soon as possible to prevent a loss of legal rights or legal recourse due to the passage of time. FREE BACKGROUND INFORMATION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
Disclaimer—Not Legal Advice: The choice of lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements. Anyone seeking legal advice is encouraged to personally consult with a licensed attorney as soon as possible to prevent a loss of legal rights or legal recourse due to the passage of time. FREE BACKGROUND INFORMATION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
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