Posted on 01/27/2023 5:26:45 PM PST by george76
Liberty Justice Center (LJC), a “national free speech law firm,” filed an appeal against Arizona State University (ASU) Thursday after a former student was convicted of trespassing by handing out constitutions on campus, according to Friday’s press release.
Tim Tizon, a now-former Arizona State University student, was arrested in March 2022 after he refused to stop passing out pamphlets of the United States constitution at ASU Tempe’s campus on behalf of the libertarian student organization Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), the press release explained. He is appealing the conviction at Maricopa County Circuit Court and is represented pro bono by LJC.
Tizon was a student at the time of the arrest, YAL and the law firm confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“If free speech means anything it means that in a public area, at a public university, a student should not be arrested for handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution,” Reilly Stephens, LJC staff attorney, told the DCNF. “It starts being as simple as that.”
BREAKING: Tim Tizon, a student at Arizona State University was arrested and convicted for handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution. Yesterday, the @LJCenter appealed his conviction to protect his First Amendment rights.
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Tizon had set up a table on the campus’ North Plaza with the YAL logo while distributing the pamphlets, according to the press release. He was reportedly told that the set up violated the school’s “reservation policy” and that he had to remain in a designated free speech zone located in an isolated part of campus.
“Universities are supposed to be the epicenter of the marketplace of ideas,” Tizon said, according to the press release. “ASU has let me down and every other student too by placing its bureaucracy ahead of our First Amendment rights.”
Free speech zones are designated locations on campus reserved for public speech. They are widely criticized by free speech activists as being unconstitutional, especially on a public campus, since they limit free expression to a specific location.
“It is absolutely silly that students have to worry about getting arrested for standing in the wrong patch of grass. Speech codes like this treat students like babies who aren’t capable of hearing a political idea without having a guidance counselor around,”Carter Quill, YAL’s director of media relations, told the DCNF. “People go to college to learn, not be coddled, and Tim Tizon deserves some justice for both this unjust arrest, and for having to put up with trigger happy campus administrators who need to learn their place.”
Cases like Tizon’s are commonplace on college campuses, Stephens told the DCNF.
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“We’ve seen things like this happen at a lot of schools in a lot of different places in the country,” he said, “and we thing that it’s important to stand up for the fact that our public universities are public and are for the public exchange of ideas, and all our client was trying to do was advocate for those ideas he cares about and advocate for the constitution.”
“after he refused to stop passing out pamphlets of the United States constitution at ASU Tempe’s campus “
If the campus is considered private property - he is toast.
“former student was convicted of trespassing by handing out constitutions on campus, “
When are they gonna demand we learn to speak Chinese?
I'd say the speech codes worked, triggered students must have safe zones, teddy bears and playdough time!😅
Could be, but seriously, copies of the US constitution that they freaked out and arrested him? How childish. You’d think they would be rewarding or thanking him...
Wouldn’t Arizona State University be a public institution funded by taxpayers?
College student: Hey, look. Handing out free toilet paper.
Sorry for being bitter.
If it is a state university, it is the property of the people of the state.
If he is a state resident, then he is a part owner of the university.
“If the campus is considered private property - he is toast.”
I doubt if even one of these universities takes no money from the taxpayers.
How many other students have passed out pamphlets and not been charged?
Its a public institution.
Since the FBI has relabeled the U.S. Constitution as an extremist manifesto written by far-right dissidents and white supremacists, dissemination of it can be classified as a terrorist act.
If they University pursues this - THEY are toast. Conservative media, Congressmen looking for an issue, conservative websites will give names and shame them.
“Arizona State University”
Definitely NOT private property.
“Ifthe campus is considered private property - he is toast.”
According to the article it’s a public school and he was a student at the time.
It was at Arizona State University so it is government public property and government cannot be allowed to tell citizens what so say and where they can say it.
He was handing out anti-government literature at a government sponsored skool.
Why? The institution must ascribe to the principles of academic freedom if it is accredited as a university. This principle is wider than freedom of speech. Since all Universities must be accredited by some association, for example the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, normal principles such as academic freedom must apply. A private university is not merely a private businesses, they have a public responsibility too.
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