FIRE to File Amicus Brief in DeJohn v. Temple

by William Creeley

August 28, 2007

FIRE President Greg Lukianoff just sent out the following message to FIRE allies across the country, and we figured we’d give the Torch readership a heads-up on our plans:
Temple University is appealing a March 21 district court decision in DeJohn v. Temple University in which the court issued a permanent injunction against Temple University’s former speech code. Temple’s speech code—typical of those found at public universities across the country—prohibited “generalized sexist remarks and behavior, not necessarily designed to elicit sexual cooperation, but that convey insulting, degrading or sexist attitudes about women and men.”
Despite their code’s overbreadth and vagueness, Temple argues that in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Morse v. Frederick, its regulations on speech are acceptable. Beating Temple here would be another crucial rebuke of unconstitutional speech codes on our nation’s campuses and would hopefully help reverse the dangerous judicial trend of equating the free speech rights of high school with those of college students. On the other hand, failure would be a true disaster for freedom on campus.
If you belong to or otherwise know of groups who would be interesting in joining FIRE’s amicus brief, please contact FIRE here. Thanks!