RED FLAG: Franklin & Marshall students wave their speech rights goodbye

Even a small flag can unfurl a world of meaning. Just ask immigrants being sworn in as U.S. citizens or the students currently waving Israeli and Palestinian flags on campuses across the country. 

But in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Franklin & Marshall College wants students to put away their flags — or else. In its new Time, Place & Manner Interim Policy, the college warns community members that “Flags promoting a political candidate or party are not allowed anywhere on campus.”

What could students expect once a policy like this is enforced? Students could get in trouble for the serious offense of waving a rainbow Harris-Walz flag. The phrase “Make America Great Again” in flag form is similarly banned. Thanks to the policy’s broad language, even flags bearing vague political messages aren’t safe from administrators (or Supreme Court watchers). A plain red flag could promote various left-of-center causes, while flipping the U.S. flag upside-down could be seen as a nod to former President Donald Trump. And because the policy defines a flag broadly as “cloth or a similar material attachable by one edge to a pole or rope,” anything from waving around a miniature flag to temporarily draping a flag on a chair or table is a potentially punishable offense.  

No matter how small or potentially innocuous, these displays aren’t acceptable at Franklin & Marshall thanks to this new policy.

Who gets to wave the American flag?

This ridiculously restrictive policy extends far beyond politics and parties. According to another provision, “Flags representing the home country of currently enrolled students may be displayed in the Steinman Center and during College ceremonies. Other flags may be displayed in Steinman with the approval of the Director of Student Engagement.”

Franklin & Marshall College

Lancaster, PA

School Ranking

118 of 251

Speech Code

Yellow

Free Speech Climate

Overall score: 48

More Info

This strange stipulation forbids, hypothetically, foreign nationals from spontaneously displaying the U.S. flag in a building commonly known as Franklin & Marshall’s “living room” because the U.S. is not their home country. It’s unclear what “home country” even means, and whether a non-citizen student who has lived in the U.S. for half their life is permitted by the policy to call the U.S. home. And if you are from a place whose flag incorporates the symbols of a political party, like Taiwan, you may be out of luck altogether.

Franklin & Marshall has no excuse for this blatant disregard of free speech principles. The school may be private and not bound by the First Amendment, but it promises freedom of expression to its students. In its “Public Demonstrations and Protests Policy,” the college claims it “encourages an atmosphere that supports civil discourse.” The policy goes on to state, “The right of free expression at F&M includes the opportunity to engage in peaceful dissent, protests in peaceable assembly and orderly demonstrations.” 

Apparently, this right to dissent, demonstrate, and engage in discourse stops when a flag, however small, is unveiled.

Flag ban chills political speech

Franklin & Marshall’s flag ban is especially frustrating because of the upcoming general election. Now more than ever, students must be able to express themselves and advocate for their preferred candidates. Franklin & Marshall’s anti-flag frenzy will make students think twice before speaking their minds on the most important issues of the day. FIRE cautioned against these sorts of speech-squashing policies in our 2024 Policy Statement on Political Speech on Campus:

Protecting robust political expression, debate, and peaceful protest at our nation’s colleges and universities is vital to the health of American democracy. It follows that students and faculty peacefully expressing political views during the 2024 election season must not face any form of suppression . . . While intentional viewpoint discrimination against certain candidates or causes is a common throughline, more obscure culprits — like genuine administrative confusion about how IRS requirements can impact campus campaigning — show up time and again, too.

The college’s misguided flag ban is likely a result of misinterpreting the above-cited IRS rules. Fortunately, America’s tax collector isn’t interested in a couple of nineteen-year-olds waving around politically-motivated pride or Palestinian flags. The IRS explains on its website:

 [A]ll section 501(c)(3) organizations [e.g., Franklin & Marshall College] are prohibited from participating in any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office [including] [c]ontributions to political campaign funds, public statements of support or opposition (verbal or written) made by or on behalf of an organization, and the distribution of materials prepared by others that support or oppose any candidate for public office all violate the prohibition on political campaign intervention.

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The IRS is clear: tax-exempt organizations cannot engage in partisan politics. But allowing community members to speak their minds is another matter entirely, so long as the institution is clear that it is not taking a side. Students and student groups generally do not speak on behalf of their university, and it’s nonsensical to impute their expression to Franklin & Marshall or any other school. 

To avoid playing political favorites, Franklin & Marshall can enact reasonable and viewpoint-neutral “time, place, and manner” restrictions on where students can put displays, including flags, on campus. It can certainly avoid any appearance of partiality by barring students from installing flags on university gates or buildings where they would reasonably appear to be a statement from the institution itself. 

But no effort to stick to political neutrality necessitates or justifies punishing students for displaying their own flags to represent their own views. The university must avoid joining the growing ranks of colleges violating their students’ freedom of speech.