Berkeley Claims Control of the Word ‘California’ But Permits Student Group to Use It

May 3, 2010

The University of California at Berkeley restricts student organizations from using the words “California,” “Cal,” and “Berkeley” in organization names without prior permission. Like many colleges and universities across California, Berkeley is enforcing unconstitutional provisions that prevent the use of school names in a wide variety of contexts, even when there is no confusion between private speech and official university speech. These provisions chill speech across the state. With FIRE’s help, a longstanding Berkeley student publication, California Patriot, is now allowed to register under its actual name. Berkeley’s rules for student organization names include bans on the use of certain […]