“Public colleges and universities should function as our nation’s marketplaces of ideas, not as prisons of censorship,” said American Liberties Institute President and General Counsel Frederick H. Nelson of – Orlando, Florida, one of more than 1,800 attorneys in the ADF alliance. “When college officials shut down their campuses to free speech and put burdensome restrictions on this First Amendment-protected liberty, even off-campuses, they are assuming an authority that they simply don’t have.”
Three Florida residents, who are also members of the conservative organization Young Americans for Freedom, were prohibited from handing out information at the “free speech zones” of a number of PBSC campuses, with college officials citing their speech policies as authority by which to deny their free speech rights. College policy demands that speakers get permission to hand out materials 24 hours prior to distribution. But in practice, the situation is even worse. PBSC officials informed the YAF leader that they actually institute a total ban on literature distribution, making it difficult for YAF members to share their ideas through making free materials available to students who voluntarily accept them–and by speaking to those who are willing to converse with them. Earlier this fall, college officials stopped YAF from distributing Heritage Foundation reports on the federal “stimulus” bill. ADF attorneys argue that such a policy is a blatant violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“Constitutional rights don’t simply end when you step on or around a public university or college campus,” said ADF Legal Counsel Casey Mattox. “College officials may want you to think so, but their policies don’t trump the U.S. Constitution, and we will continue to challenge such university policies, which are rampant throughout our nation.”
The lawsuit Young Americans for Freedom v. Bryant was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.