Rights in the News: Victory at Community College of Allegheny County Starts October off on High Note

As FIRE's 10th Anniversary Celebration inches closer, FIRE is proud to unveil a newly revamped Campus Freedom Network site. We're happy, too, to ring in October with a major victory for student rights at the Community College of Allegheny County.

Torch readers, of course, were well aware of the travails of CCAC student Christine Brashier, whom CCAC attempted to intimidate into silence when she attempted to start a chapter of the national group Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. After months of administrative wrangling under the hot lights of FIRE's media campaign against CCAC, we were thrilled to announce this Monday that Brashier, with the help of FIRE and FIRE Legal Network Attorney Michael J. Rinaldi, has finally had her rights fully restored. CCAC also dropped a repressive prior review requirement for distributing handbills. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review was among the publications carrying the news of FIRE's victory at CCAC, with help from Ana Kasparian at Examiner.com and Instapundit. Eugene Volokh trumpeted the victory on his blog The Volokh Conspiracy, where he also took a moment to note that he'll be delivering the keynote address at our 10th Anniversary Dinner Celebration on October 22.

CCAC's capitulation has left other egregious campus offenders standing on even lonelier ground. Chief among them is East Georgia College, which has remained silent for more than two months now in the face of persistent demands for evidence supporting its charge of sexual harassment against Professor Thomas Thibeault, summarily fired in August. Brandon commented earlier today on a Popehat.com column calling EGC to task, and, in recent days, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has covered the story.

Bucknell University remains in the spotlight as well, with Greg briefly discussing the university's censorship of the Bucknell University Conservatives Club's activities this week on MSNBC's "Dr. Nancy." (Robert also lent analysis to a separate MSNBC piece on the encroachment upon student speech rights online.) The Brown and White, a student newspaper at Bucknell's Patriot League rival Lehigh University, has also published a thoughtful piece on BUCC's difficulties.

Meanwhile, Dave Barry's FIRE video has continued popping up--at Instapundit, The American Spectator, and Reason.com, among other places. You can also read about it in Thomas Mitchell's Las Vegas Review-Journal column.

And if you didn't already, be sure to listen to Harvey Silverglate's radio interview with National Review's John J. Miller, where he discusses his newly released book Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent.