the school responded by passing a blanket ban on all window displays in student dormitories. ASA director Charles Nuckolls says his organization then wrote a letter informing the University of Alabama that it was violating the free-speech rights of students.
Students don't have much property right in a dorm room/building - more like hotel room guests than regular apartment tenants - and hanging things from the windows of someone else's property is quite a stretch as a free speech right. Many housing occupants - private renters, condo owners, and even residents of my tidy subdivision - have contractual restrictions on what they can have on or around their property.
IMO, the university would be legally entitled to have a universal "nothing out the windows" rule. If dorm residents don't agree with the facilities' rules, they can move out.
****
Students don't have much property right in a dorm room/building - more like hotel room guests than regular apartment tenants - and hanging things in the windows of someone else's property is quite a stretch as a free speech right. Many housing occupants - private renters, condo owners, and even residents of my tidy subdivision - have contractual restrictions on what they can have in, on, or around their property.
IMO, the university would be legally entitled to have a universal "nothing except university-issue curtains in the windows" rule. If dorm residents don't agree with the facilities' rules, they can move out. For example, my subdivision does not allow owners to cover the interior of windows with aluminum foil, because this may affect the value of other owners' properties.