Posted on 11/07/2007 8:07:43 PM PST by SmithL
OAKLAND - The 417,000 students at California State University's 28 campuses are expected to be civil to one another, the university says in its policy manual.
It sounds innocuous - but a federal magistrate says it's an unconstitutional restriction on speech when the policy is used to investigate or discipline students, such as the College Republicans whose members stomped on two flags bearing the name of Allah during an anti-terrorism rally at San Francisco State last year.
"It might be fine for the university to say, 'Hey, we hope you folks are civil to one another,' " U.S. Magistrate Wayne Brazil said last week at a hearing in his Oakland courtroom. "But it's not fine for the university to say, 'If you're not civil, whatever that means, we're going to punish you.' "
Brazil said he would issue a preliminary injunction barring the university from enforcing the civility standard in any disciplinary proceeding. He said the university can continue to enforce another rule disputed by the College Republicans - prohibiting intimidation or harassment - but can use the rule to punish students only for threatening someone's health or safety, and not merely for offensive statements or conduct.
The ruling, which has not yet been issued in writing, was a victory for conservative legal organizations that have filed suits around the nation challenging colleges' speech codes.
Most of those codes were adopted in the 1980s and '90s and prohibit what the schools described as hate speech - expressions that are abusive or demeaning to various racial, ethnic, sexual or religious groups. Opponents, who have often included the American Civil Liberties Union as well as religious conservatives, say the codes amount to censorship and an attempt to stifle debate.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Good.
Score one for Free Speech on Campus!
The Colleges have lost every time these speech codes have been challenged in court.
are expected to be civil to one another
*******
“Expected to” does not equal “lawfully required to”. Finally, a judge who gets it. Illegal acts must be clearly defined.
Behold, a Federal Magistrate in whom there is no guile!
And in the 9th Circus, no less.
Am I dreaming?
WE actually have one judge in the whole country that understands the Right to Free Speech - for even republicans?
Maybe there's hope?
College ‘Pubbies would have been just fine there in Kalifornia if they’d been stomping on a U.S. flag.
What do we know of the judge?
“Wayne Brazil has been a United States Magistrate Judge in northern California since 1984.”
From here:
http://engagingconflicts.com/index.php/archives/317
That would be right in the middle of the Reagan Administration, of course.
Get ready for the work around from leftists - they will not take kindly to allowing people to speak their mind.
I dont believe we have heard the last of this - professors and Universities will still enact their own form of justice regardless of this decision.
Conservatives fail to recognize that liberals only care about the law when it serves their purpose - ie. House just passed the new Homosexual Indoctrination Bill.
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