UT policies restrict students' free speech, lawsuit says
A nonprofit civil rights group is suing University of Texas leadership for what it alleges are restrictive university policies that violate students’ First Amendment rights to free speech.
The lawsuit that was filed in federal court Thursday by Speech First, a national student group that advocates for free speech, names UT President Gregory Fenves and UT System Chancellor James Milliken, among others.
It alleges that UT has “crafted a series of speech codes with numerous vague and overbroad prohibitions on student speech” that “poses a grave risk of chilling the open and unfettered discourse that should be central to higher education,” according to the suit.
It names specifically portions of the undergraduate catalogue, handbook of operating procedures and nondiscrimination policy that ban verbal harassment, including threats, insults and personal attacks based on a person’s race, religion, gender, age and other personal characteristics, as well as portions of the university’s IT and residence hall policies that prohibit incivility and harassment.
Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20181214/ut-policies-restrict-students-free-speech-lawsuit-says