FIRST AMENDMENT DISPUTE

Tim Burke, Manley Burke, tburke@manleyburke.com

“The vigilant protection of Constitutional freedoms is nowhere more vital than in the community of American schools,” so said the United States Supreme Court in Shelton v. Tucker, 364 U.S. 479 at 487 (1960).  On public college campuses, the right of students to freely associate in fraternities and sororities of their choice is found in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Fraternal Law has previously reported on the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s (FIRE) campaign of litigation against campus speech codes which restrict “a substantial amount of protected speech.”

David A. French, the former President of FIRE, now heads the Center for Academic Freedom at the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a conservative Christian legal-advocacy group.  It recently filed suit against Penn State University on behalf of a Penn State student, challenging University regulations which prohibit “acts of intolerance” and the regulation of free speech to certain “speech zones.”  ADF described the regulations as speech codes.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education (February 24, 2006), a Penn State spokesman stated “Penn State does not have a speech code, … [the University] recognizes and vigorously protects the free-speech rights of all members of the University community.”

French said in an ADF Press Release, “Universities are supposed to be a marketplace of ideas.  Students on campus have the First Amendment right to get a degree and maintain their religious and political views.  One should not be contingent upon the other.”

Fluehr v. Penn State Univ., United States District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania, Case No. 4:06-cv-00394-