Students at Pierce College will be able to pass out copies of the U.S. Constitution without conditions after two years of legal wrangling.
The California school’s “free speech” zone the size of a few parking spaces, which hindered student Kevin Shaw in 2016, will no longer be an issue. The Los Angeles Community College District settled the lawsuit and will abolish the policy that prevented him from passing out Spanish-language copies of the document.
“I wish it hadn’t taken two years for my school to conclude I had a right to free expression,” Mr. Shaw told the educational watchdog Campus Reform Tuesday. “All the same, I’m thankful to know future students won’t have to worry about being harassed for expressing political opinions.”
Mr. Shaw was aided in his efforts by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).
FIRE Director of Litigation Marieke Tuthill Beck-Coon was equally as enthusiastic with the result.
“More than two years ago, administrators wrongly told Kevin he was not allowed to hand out copies of the U.S. Constitution in the center of his public college campus,” Ms. Beck-Coon said in a statement. “He’s been standing up for his First Amendment rights every day since, and in the process has vindicated the rights of every student in the district.”
Pierce College attempted to sink the lawsuit in January by arguing that the public campus was a “non-public forum.”
A judge dismissed its motion to dismiss the case.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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