Cal State University – Bakersfield’s (CSUB) College Republicans are lawyering up in response to their university’s potential violation of their Constitutional rights.
The university has recently informed the CSUB College Republicans that they cannot use the Icardo Center for an event with Milo Yiannopoulos because they plan to sell tickets. They cite a campus regulation concerning “commercial purposes.”
This information was made available to the CSUB College Republicans just two weeks before the cut-off date for finalizing an event, despite the initial process of coordinating the event took place as early as May 2017.
“We attended several meetings with Administration over the summer and did our absolute best to ensure they had every detail and piece of information that they needed to make this as smooth as possible. And from the very beginning they knew that we intended to charge for tickets for the event in order to cover the speaker’s fee and other associated costs for this event,” Jake Thomasy, Chairman Emeritus of the CSUB College Republicans, told Red Alert.
According to a letter, sent to CSUB by the College Republican’s non-profit public interest law firm Freedom X, the “commercial purposes” policy is “unconstitutionally vague and overbroad time, place and manner regulation because such discretion has the potential for becoming a means of suppressing a particular point of view.”
The letter also points out that many left-wing political commentators have used the Icardo Center for events and that blocking the College Republicans from hosting Yiannopoulos could be considered “viewpoint discrimination.”
California State University-Fullerton, a nearby campus in the same university system, has been more than cooperative with College Republicans looking to host Yiannopoulos and Freedom X points to Cal State Fullerton as an example of how to work with student groups to protect free speech and promote diverse viewpoints on campus.
“Charging a fee and selling tickets is not rocket science. Indeed, we are available to assist the university in adopting a smooth and efficient process,” the letter states.
Unless CSUB reverses its decision to enforce the commercial use restriction at Icardo Center, we will promptly seek immediate injunctive relief. Due to the university’s deadline, we wish to hear from your attorneys this week to avoid litigation,” the letter concludes.
