Free Speech—Especially about JESUS—Outlawed Without a 'Permit' on This University Campus?

News Staff : Apr 28, 2016
CBN News

"The courts have well established that a public university can't require permits in this manner for this kind of speech—and certainly can't enforce such rules selectively."

[CBN News] North Carolina State University is facing a lawsuit after requiring Christian students to have a permit before talking about Jesus. (Photo: NCSU.edu)

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed the lawsuit after university officials forbade an on-campus Christian group called Grace Christian Life from handing out fliers and talking about Jesus without a permit.

The university has a campus-wide policy that requires a permit for any kind of student speech anywhere on campus. However, ADF attorneys say the policy is unconstitutional and was used to discriminate against Grace Christian Life.

Although Grace Christian Life followed school policy and obtained a permit, they say they were still prohibited from passing out fliers, leaving their student tables, and talking about Jesus.

Meanwhile, other student organizations were able to speak freely without a permit.

"Grace Christian Life members observed and documented numerous other groups freely speaking with other students and handing out literature either without a permit or outside of the area reserved by their table permit—sometimes in full view of the same officials that stopped Grace Christian Life from doing the same," ADF said in a statement on the firm's website.

ADF attorneys say the policy for any student is unconstitutional let alone its misuse.

"The courts have well established that a public university can't require permits in this manner for this kind of speech—and certainly can't enforce such rules selectively," explained ADF Senior Counsel David Hacker on the firm's website.

"Unconstitutional censorship is bad enough, but giving university officials complete discretion to decide when and where to engage in silencing students makes the violation even worse," he said.

Another ADF attorney gave a similar statement.

"Public universities are supposed to be the marketplace of ideas, not places where students need a permit just to exercise their constitutionally protected freedoms," ADF attorney Tyson Langhofer told The News & Observer. "The only permit needed to engage in free speech is the First Amendment."