Score another victory for free speech on college campuses. Young America’s Foundation (YAF) has won a critical victory in court against Golden West College in California.
The Institute for Free Speech (IFS) partnered with YAF to challenge the school’s efforts to silence right-leaning expression on its campus.
“In addition to paying each of YAF’s student defendants $17.91 — a symbolic amount representing the year the First Amendment was ratified — along with attorney fees incurred by IFS, the Coast Community College District was required to remedy its unconstitutional speech policies to explicitly protect First Amendment expression,” YAF said in a statement.
The two parties reached a settlement agreement two months after YAF filed a federal ccomplaint for allegedly censoring conservative students on campus.
"This swift and decisive victory for free expression should be a warning to any school: do not infringe on students’ God-given and constitutionally protected freedoms,” said YAF Chief Communications Director Spencer Brown. “It should also inspire conservative students to be bold: when you’re under attack, YAF has your back.”
Two students at Golden West College sued Stephanie Smallshaw, the school’s disciplinary officer, for violating their First and 14th Amendment rights. The lawsuit, which was filed in May, alleges that they were frequently targeted and threatened with punishment for expressing right-leaning views during campus events.
The school sought to punish them for making statements such as “illegal immigration is a cancer upon any society in the world” and “Hamas is a terrorist organization, and they must be wiped fromt he face of the earth,” according to court documents.
Smallshaw claimed these statements were dehumanizing and could potentially incite violence. She told the students that they could face consequences if they continued to make similar statements.
“You can’t use language that dehumanizes a group of people and compares them to a deadly disease,” Smallshaw said, according to the complaint. “It can also be harmful to people who have experienced cancer with their loved ones.”
She allegedly stated that “some students here believe Hamas is not a terrorist organization, and you need to stop using such offenstive language that could potentially encourage violence.”
“Some students here believe Hamas is not a terrorist organization, and you need to stop using such offensive language that could potentially encourage violence.”
The plaintiffs argued that the school’s disciplinary code — especially its prohibition on “hate ful behavior aimed at a specific person or group of people” and “infliction of mental harm” — is overly broad to the point of being unconstitutional.
These rules empowered administrators to punish — or not punish — speech as they saw fit. “Plaintiffs are unsure as to what speech, exactly, would land them in trouble,” the lawsuit noted.
YAF’s lawsuit ended in a formal settlement that includes monetary payments and policy changes. Under the agreement, the Coast Community College District will repeal the school’s ban on “Hateful Behavior” and make changes to its rule against “Infliction of Mental Harm.” The new policy will mandate that “Speech or other expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment…does not violate this provision.”
Both of the students will receive $17.91 while the Institute for Free Speech will get $25,750.89 in attorneys' fees. The student’s monetary settlement is a reference to the year 1791, when the First Amendment was ratified.
This is a wonderful outcome, and one of several legal victories YAF has won. There are still many universities and colleges that seek to protect left-wing supremacy over political discourse on campus. It’s an issue that has persisted for decades.
But with conservatives using the legal system to challenge these practices, these institutions will find it harder to suppress dissenting voices.