A nonprofit organization that specializes in defending free speech on college campuses has filed a lawsuit against the University of Houston over a harassment policy that punishes speech such as jokes and stereotyping.
Membership-based nonprofit organization Speech First accused the Texas-based public university in a Wednesday filing of violating the First Amendment rights of students by maintaining a policy that subjects them to disciplinary action for online and off-campus speech that falls under the institution’s standard of harassment.
The challenged policy defines harassment to include “negative stereotyping” and “denigrating jokes,” which Speech First says are protected speech under the First Amendment, as they go beyond the established U.S. Supreme Court standard of harassment that public universities must follow.
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“Supreme Court precedent dictates that institutions of higher learning are only permitted to restrict speech when speech becomes so ‘severe and pervasive’ that it crosses the line into harassing conduct,” the organization said in a press release announcing the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three students at the university who are members of Speech First and claim that the institution’s policy on harassment makes them unwilling to express their beliefs openly, but the filing also notes that the policy ignores academic freedom guarantees.
“Under the policy, even ‘[m]inor verbal and nonverbal slights, snubs, annoyances, insults, or isolated incidents including, but not limited to microaggressions,’ can constitute harassment if ‘such incidents keep happening over time and are targeting a Protected Class,’” the lawsuit says. “The policy warns that ‘academic freedom and freedom of expression will not excuse behavior that constitutes a violation of the law or this policy.’”
The filing says that if a student violates the current policy, they would face disciplinary action that could include suspension or expulsion from the university.
“Speech First’s members who attend the University are suffering concrete injuries as a direct result of the University’s unconstitutional harassment policy,” the lawsuit says. “These students want to engage in speech that is arguably covered by the University’s policy, but they credibly fear that the expression of their deeply held views will be considered ‘intimidating,’ ‘denigrating,’ ‘negative stereotyp[es],’ and the like. Rather than risk being reported, investigated, or sanctioned, they do not speak as freely as they otherwise would.”
Cherise Trump, the executive director for Speech First, said in a statement that “universities should not be ideological instruments for propagating expression carefully curated to match whatever ideas and beliefs happen to be popular at the moment.”
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“They must once again establish themselves as open forums where students can engage in debate and dialogue without fear of retribution …” she continued. “The University of Houston is silencing its students’ speech at every turn, and inquisitive minds seeking an education deserve much better.”
In a statement Thursday, the University of Houston said it was aware of Speech First’s lawsuit and “all fundamental rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, including the First Amendment, are vital to any public institution and the citizens of this state, and are extremely important to the University of Houston System.”
“This lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the University of Houston System’s Anti-Discrimination policy based on the First Amendment,” the university said. “We believe Speech First has misconstrued or misread this policy as our policy clearly indicates that actionable harassment must be ‘unlawful severe, pervasive, or persistent treatment,’ the standard cited by Plaintiffs and adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court. We look forward to a prompt resolution of this matter.”
