Citrus College
Location: Glendora, California
Website: http://www.citruscollege.edu
Type: No Type Yet
Federal Circuit: 9th Circuit
Speech Code Rating
Citrus College is not currently rated in our system. To request speech code information about this school, please submit a speech code request form.
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Citrus College – Stand Up For Speech Lawsuit
July 1, 2014
On September 17, 2013 Citrus College student Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle was threatened with removal from campus by an administrator for asking a fellow student to sign a petition protesting NSA surveillance of American citizens.
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Citrus College: Speech Code Litigation
May 19, 2003
NOTE: This case is NOT in conjunction with FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project. If you are attempting to find information about the 2014 litigation against Citrus College, you may find it here. In 2003, at California’s Citrus College, under the pressure of litigation and FIRE’s national campaign for campus constitutional rights, the Board of Trustees voted to rescind most of the speech codes at the public institution. This was the first victory in FIRE’s declared war on speech codes at public colleges and universities.
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Citrus College: Compulsory Anti-War Speech
March 7, 2003
A Citrus College professor had compelled undergraduate students to write anti-war letters to President George W. Bush, penalizing the grades of students who dissented or refused to send the letters. After FIRE intervened, the Citrus College administration repudiated this outrage and resolved all issues in favor of freedom of conscience.
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Red Light Policies
Sexual Violence Prevention Statement 09-10
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies, Statement
The perception of the victim, not the intent of the harasser, determines whether particular words or actions are harassing.
Last updated: December 15, 2013
Standards of Student Conduct 09-10
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies, Statement
Engaging in expression which is obscene; libelous or slanderous; or which so
Last updated: December 15, 2013
incites students as to create a clear and present danger of the commission of
unlawful acts on District premises.
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2 California Colleges Settle Claims for Protest Restrictions
August 10, 2015
By The Associated Press at KSL.com POMONA, Calif. (AP) — Two California colleges have settled complaints over restrictions on student protests, and other campuses may come under similar scrutiny. California State Polytechnic University in Pomona and Citrus College in Glendora, both east of Los Angeles, have in the last eight months settled cases brought against them by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, also known as FIRE. Citrus paid $110,000 and agreed to make campus protests easier. Cal Poly paid $35,000 for attorney fees and court costs for Nicolas Tomas, a student who was handing out brochures supporting a […]
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28 California Colleges, Universities Have ‘Restrictive’ Protest, Demonstration Policies
August 9, 2015
By Beau Yarbrough at Whittier Daily News Two California colleges have settled for $145,000 in damages in eight months after being sued over restrictions on student protests and political speech. And as other campuses prepare to begin fall classes, the organization that sued Citrus College and Cal Poly Pomona has a list of more than two dozen schools with restrictive protest and demonstration policies. On July 23, Cal Poly Pomona settled a lawsuit over a policy that restricted political speech to a 154-square-foot triangle of grass on campus for $35,000. In the settlement, the university agreed to revise its policies […]
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Cal Poly Pomona Suspends ‘Free Speech Zone’ Policy
May 6, 2015
By Beau Yarbrough at The Sun POMONA >> A month after a Cal Poly Pomona student sued the university over a policy that limited political speech to permit-holders standing in a defined area on campus, the university has said it will not enforce the policy while the matter is being litigated. “We have agreed to a standstill while we go through negotiations,” Cal Poly spokeswoman Esther Tanaka said Wednesday. “We’re pleased that the negotiations have been productive.” On March, 31, a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of Nicolas Tomas, 24, a senior majoring […]
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Going Through FIRE to Protect Our Rights: College Students Feel Heat on Campus Over Free-Speech Issues
April 20, 2015
By Editorial Staff at The Augusta Chronicle Young people are the future. It stands to reason, then, that they must understand their freedoms if freedoms are to endure into the future. Enter FIRE. The nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (www.thefire.org) helps protect students’ rights, particularly their First Amendment right to free speech. Unless you’ve followed FIRE, you’d be amazed at how much those basic rights are under assault today on American college campuses – which, in the 1960s, actually came to symbolize free speech. Like many college administrations, officials at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, not only set […]
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Colleges Settle Free Speech Lawsuits FIRE Promises More Litigation
January 23, 2015
By Jake New at Inside Higher Ed The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s attempt to end “the generation-long scandal of campus speech codes” by helping to file free-speech lawsuits against a number of colleges and universities has so far resulted in more than $200,000 in settlements. The lawsuits are part of a campaign – called the Stand Up for Speech Litigation Project — that began in July with litigationagainst Chicago State University, Citrus College, Iowa State University and Ohio University. FIRE had previously brought lawsuits against Modesto Junior College and the University of Hawaii at Hilo for blocking students […]
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First Amendment Defender FIRE Wins $200k In Settlements
January 23, 2015
By Morgan Chalfant at Red Alert Politics The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has won over $200,000 in settlements for the individuals it has helped to coordinate free-speech lawsuits against universities across the country that threaten the First Amendment. In particular, three of the lawsuits that FIRE has helped organize have forced schools to revise their free speech policies and pay thousands in settlements, as reports Inside Higher Ed. For instance, a case against Citrus College in California has resulted in the school paying a $110,000 settlement in addition to revising its free speech policy and expanding its free […]
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Calif. College Settles Student Lawsuit, Will Comply With First Amendment
December 12, 2014
By Gabriel Nadales at Campus Reform CItrus College make all public spaces on its campus free speech areas after a settling a lawsuit with a student. On Sept., 17, Constitution Day, Citrus student Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle was gathering signatures to petition his student government to pass a resolution condemning the National Security Agency for its warrantless spying of American citizens. When Sinapi-Riddle walked outside of the free-speech zone, an administrator confronted him and threatened to kick him off campus unless he returned to the designated speech zone. Sinapi-Riddle, a sophomore computer science major,filed a lawsuit against Citrus in July as part […]
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Citrus College Never Learned Its Free-Speech Lessons: Editorial
December 10, 2014
Editorial at Whittier Daily News Let the $110,000 Citrus College had to fork over this week to settle a free-speech lawsuit by a student be a lesson to other area colleges and schools: Stop abridging the First Amendment rights of those you teach. Really. You are supposed to be teaching, among other things, about that crucial amendment to the Constitution along with the nine others that give Americans so many freedoms in so many ways. Instead, what Citrus College administrators did by their actions was to give students a lesson in the way the First Amendment works. It’s that when […]
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California College Gets Busted, Again, For Violating Free Speech
December 9, 2014
By Bob Kellog at OneNewsNow Citrus College student Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle was collecting signatures for a petition against the National Security Agency domestic surveillance while staying inside the school’s free-speech zone. Robert Shibley of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, explains that Sinapi-Riddle ran into trouble when he talked to someone during a break. “He started talking to somebody about the petition,” Shibley advises. “And that’s when the administrators caught him and told him he could only discuss those political matters within the free speech zone.” Citrus is a community college of approximately 12,300 students located in Glendora. […]
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College Reaches $110K Free Speech Settlement With Student
December 9, 2014
By CS Staff at Campus Safety Magazine Citrus College in Glendora, Calif., has settled a lawsuit with a student who claimed his First Amendment rights were violated when an administrator threatened to remove him from campus for collecting petition signatures. Student Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle was asking for signatures on a petition against the federal National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance activities when an unidentified administrator told him he was outside the school’s designated “free speech zone.” The college has agreed to pay Sinapi-Riddle $110,000 in damages and attorney’s fees, as well as revise its policies, Fox News reports. The college said it […]
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FIRE Celebrates Two Victories for Free Speech on Campus in 24 Hours
December 4, 2014
By Aleister at College Insurrection I don’t know if people truly appreciate the work that FIRE does for free speech, particularly at colleges and universities. Congratulations and thank you, FIRE. Second Victory in 24 Hours: College that Suppressed Anti-NSA Petition Settles Lawsuit LOS ANGELES, December 3, 2014—Today, Citrus College in California agreed to settle a student’s free speech lawsuit for $110,000, marking the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s (FIRE’s) second victory for the First Amendment in 24 hours. Student Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle filed the federal lawsuit in July as part of FIRE’sStand Up For Speech Litigation Project. Sinapi-Riddle was threatened […]
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California College Settles First Amendment Suit With Student
December 4, 2014
By Fox News at Fox News A California community college has settled a lawsuit with a student who claimed it violated his First Amendment rights when an administrator threatened him for collecting petition signatures outside of a small, designated “free speech zone.” Student Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle, with help from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, sued Glendora, Calif., Citrus College after the incident, which occurred on Sept. 17, 2013 – the day designated as “Constitution Day.” Sinapi-Riddle was collecting signatures for a petition condemning the federal National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance activities. When he left the area for a lunch […]
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Citrus College Settles Free Speech Lawsuit By Student
December 3, 2014
By Melissa Masatani at San Gabriel Valley Tribune Citrus College is modifying its free speech policy and procedures after the college settled a First Amendment lawsuit on Wednesday. A lawsuit filed in July on behalf of Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle claimed the school violated the student’s constitutional rights when he was told he could not collect signatures outside of the college’s “free speech area.” In the settlement, Citrus agreed to a $110,000 payment and will be expanding the free speech area to include most open spaces on campus; changing current procedures regarding recognized student groups; and clarify what constitutes as harassment, according […]
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College That Squelched Student Speech Under Court Supervision For A Year
December 3, 2014
By Greg Piper at The College Fix Citrus College in California settled a lawsuit with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education filed on behalf of a student who was stopped from collecting petition signatures on Constitution Day. FIRE said the school would pay the student $110,000 in damages and attorney’s fees, and that it has revised speech-squelching policies, “agreed not to impede free expression in all open areas of campus” and adopted a First Amendment-compliant definition of “harassment.” The federal court overseeing the settlement will also retain jurisdiction for a year, so the student can “enforce the agreement without […]
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Friday Interview: Fighting College Free-Speech Restrictions
November 21, 2014
By CJ Staff at Carolina Journal RALEIGH — Stroll through a college campus, and you expect to hear debate about a range of good, bad, and even crazy ideas. But too many colleges place limits on debate or restrict the free exchange of ideas to small, out-of-the-way sections of campus. Robert Shibley, senior vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, recently discussed higher education free-speech restrictions with Mitch Kokai for Carolina Journal Radio. (Click here to find a station near you or to learn about the weekly CJ Radio podcast.) Kokai: You recently wrote a column for […]
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Colleges: Drop Your Speech Codes
August 8, 2014
By David Moshman at The Huffington Post This summer, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) initiated four new First Amendment lawsuits against college censors. Additional lawsuits will follow, it announced, until unconstitutional speech codes, which are common across the nation, have been eliminated. How should college officials respond? Here’s some free advice: Join the quest for intellectual freedom in higher education. Eliminating a speech code costs nothing, will make you look good, may avoid a lawsuit and, best of all, is the right thing to do. I will elaborate on these four reasons below. But first, let’s look more closely at college […]
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Turning College Into a No-Thought Zone
July 14, 2014
By Virginia Postrel at Bloomberg View Last September, Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle, a student at Citrus Community College near Los Angeles, was collecting signatures on a petition asking the student government to condemn spying by the National Security Agency. He left the school’s designated “free speech area” to go to the student center. On his way there, he saw a likely prospect to join his cause: a student wearing a “Don’t Tread on Me” T-shirt. He stopped the student and they began talking about the petition. Then an administrator came out of a nearby building, informed them their discussion was forbidden outside […]
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EDITORIAL: Saving Campus Speech
July 11, 2014
At The Washington Times Congress is considering a constitutional amendment to eliminate the free-speech protections of the First Amendment. Over at the Internal Revenue Service, high-level officials are caught harassing American citizens for their political beliefs, but obstructing the exercise of free speech is not limited to Washington. College campuses everywhere have dropped the pretense of academic freedom, adopting speech codes to restrict what can be said or thought, lest someone take offense at the expression of an unfamiliar idea. The frightened few cowering in the faculty lounge want to sanitize the public discourse. Earlier this month, the Foundation for Individual […]
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Stop Zoning Free Speech at Citrus College: Editorial
July 10, 2014
At Los Angeles Daily News Thank goodness for zealots when it comes to defending fundamental American rights such as that of free speech. That’s because it takes purists sometimes to be able to stand up for our constitutional right to express our opinions. When those opinions are offensive to many or even to a few, the tendency especially of institutions in our society is to clamp down rather than to open up. But, in that memorable phrase from Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign, “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” No matter that what constitutes extremism often is a […]
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On Free Speech, Citrus College a Slow Learner
July 8, 2014
By Will Creeley at Los Angeles Register When it comes to free speech, Citrus College is a slow learner. A decade after paying thousands of dollars to end one First Amendment lawsuit, it now faces another. On Sept. 17, 2013, Citrus College student Vinny Sinapi-Riddle was gathering signatures on campus for a petition protesting the National Security Agency’s surveillance of American citizens. Vinny’s decision to advocate for civil liberties on that date was no accident; Sept. 17 is Constitution Day. But Vinny soon found out that Citrus College doesn’t much care for the Bill of Rights. After striking up a conversation […]
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Education Colleges Learn Risks of Curbing Free Speech
July 8, 2014
By Bob Kellogg at OneNewsNow During its fifteenth anniversary of fighting for free speech rights on college campuses, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education filed four lawsuits in one day. F.I.R.E. is coordinating lawsuits against Ohio University, Chicago State University, Iowa State University and Citrus College in California. Litigation Coordinator Catherine Sevcenko explains the strategy behind this new effort at curbing unconstitutional speech policies. “We have sort of hit a core of universities that seem to think that they don’t have to worry about their unconstitutional policies,” she says. “And so we are trying to change that calculus.” She says the […]
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UNLV Must Champion Free Speech on Campus — or Face Potential Lawsuit
July 7, 2014
At Las Vegas Review-Journal Free speech, a cornerstone of our nation’s democracy, is supposed to thrive on college and university campuses. Students can best sharpen their critical thinking skills through open, robust debate on any and all ideas. All too often, however, the free exchange of ideas on campuses only goes as far as the sensibilities of the most easily offended. As a result, administrators at campuses across the country — including right here in Nevada — have increasingly embraced heavy-handed, politically correct policies that discourage and even prohibit protected speech. These policies include the implementation of speech codes, required permits […]
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Suing for Speech on Campus
July 7, 2014
By Spencer Case at National Review Online Free speech on campus is about to get its day in court. Last week the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) brought four lawsuits against universities with speech codes they believe are unconstitutionally restrictive. The lawsuits mark the launch of the Stand Up for Free Speech Litigation Project, which aims to end barriers to free speech on campus nationwide. FIRE has been an advocate for liberty on campus since it was founded 15 years ago. They have brought lawsuits in the past when efforts to persuade university administrations to abandon unconstitutional practices have failed. […]
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Lawsuits Launched to Protect Free Speech on College Campuses
July 4, 2014
By Deirdre Fulton at Mint Press News A Philadelphia-based nonprofit devoted to defending free speech and civil liberties on college campuses filed four lawsuits on Tuesday and announced the launch of its Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project, “a national effort to eliminate unconstitutional speech codes through targeted First Amendment lawsuits.” The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), founded in 1999 by University of Pennsylvania professor Alan Charles Kors and Boston civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate, brought lawsuits against Citrus College in California, Iowa State University, Chicago State University, and Ohio University. The suits allege that administrations violated student and faculty rights through unconstitutional […]
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Free Speech: Isn’t That What College Is Supposed to Be About?
July 3, 2014
By Times Editorial Board at Los Angeles Times College campuses ought to be — but often aren’t — bastions of free speech. Sometimes it’s students who choke off debate, as occurred last year when hecklers at Brown University drowned out a speech by New York City’s police commissioner. But some college officials also suppress speech. According to a lawsuit filed this week, that was the case at Citrus College in Glendora. The lawsuit against the Citrus Community College District was brought by a student named Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle with the assistance of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a Philadelphia-based […]
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Lawsuit Challenges Citrus College’s Free Speech Rules
July 3, 2014
By Jeanne Kuang at NBC Los Angeles A lawsuit filed against Citrus College on Tuesday aims to do away with the school’s allegedly unconstitutional rules that only allow free speech on about 1 percent of campus. Student Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle filed the lawsuit in federal court, alleging that when he tried gathering signatures for an anti-NSA spying petition on the Glendora campus in September 2013, he was told he could not do so outside the school’s “Free Speech Areas.” The lawsuit says the school’s free speech areas are “miniscule,” allegedly 1.37 percent of campus. Sinapi-Riddle is seeking damages, attorney’s fees and an […]
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Morning Links: The FIRE Aims to Torch Campus Speech Codes
July 2, 2014
By Radley Balko at The Washington Post Idea: Let’s assign the least experienced police officers to the neighborhoods with the most crime. What could go wrong? Samuel Alito, the Supreme Court’s most authoritarian justice. Federal judge throws out “cannibal cop conviction,” correctly rules thatthought crimes are not crimes. From the American Civil Liberties Union, a criminal defense attorney’s guide to StingRay cellphone monitors. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper talks about marijuana legalization. Lawrence, Ind., is the latest town to get a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) armored vehicle from the Pentagon. The thing weighs more than 48,000 pounds, or more than a pound of MRAP for each resident of Lawrence. The […]
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Philly-Based Group Sues 4 Universities for Free Speech
July 2, 2014
By Joel Mathis at Philadelphia Magazine A Philly-based advocacy group, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, has sued four universities across the country, saying those institutions are squelching their students’ First Amendment rights. The New York Times reports: “We’re cultivating an intellectually unhealthy attitude that it is not O.K., or even dangerous, to hear opinions that might make you uncomfortable,” said Greg Lukianoff, the president of the group filing the suits. “Universities have been much too shy in saying that there’s a great educational benefit from hearing dissent. You have a whole generation of people who think that they should be protected from […]
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The Good Fight: FIRE Suing Colleges and Universities over Speech Codes
July 2, 2014
By Michael Barone at Washington Examiner Once upon a time, American colleges and universities prided themselves on being a zone of free expression, open to ideas, in a society that often censored speech and pressured citizens into conformism. How things have changed! Now college and university campuses are among the least free parts of our society, with speech codes and censorship enforced by armies of administrators. Fortunately there is an organization fighting this state of affairs: FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. FIRE has represented students against administrators bent on censorship and has catalogued the restrictions on speech […]
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How Free Is Free Speech at Citrus College?
July 2, 2014
By Airtalk at KPCC Four colleges and universities in California, Ohio, Illinois and Iowa are being sued by students for what they claim is an infringement of their free speech rights. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education coordinated the filing of lawsuits to eliminate unconstitutional speech codes through targeted First Amendment lawsuits. Here in California, the student, Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle, at Citrus College in Glendora, is saying his First Amendment rights are being violated by restricting his petitioning activities to a far too small “free speech” zone on campus. He claims he was having a discussion with another student about his […]
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American Universities Are Restricting an Important Right — And Students Are Fighting Back
July 2, 2014
By Jenna Kagel at News.Mic A free speech crackdown in modern day America: We expect to hear stories on repressing freedom of speech in countries like Russia, not in the U.S. But right here in the land of the free, American universities, the pillars of protest movements and open dialogue, are suppressing free speech. In response, the first-ever coordinated legal battle against U.S. universities was filed on Tuesday in four states as part of the “Stand Up for Speech” litigation project. Three-fifths of public colleges violate the First Amendment by imposing free speech policies on their campuses. American universities are banning […]
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Group Launches Litigation Campaign to Challenge Campus Speech Codes
July 2, 2014
By Ronald K.L. Collins at Concurring Opinions July 1, 2014, National Press Club, Washington, D.C. Today, two powerhouses — one a free speech activist, the other a noted First Amendment lawyer — joined forces to challenge campus free speech codes that run afoul of the First Amendment. Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and Robert Corn-Revere, a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine (DWT), announced that the group and the law firm would work together in a litigation campaign to change the free speech culture on many campuses across the nation. “Unconstitutional campus speech codes have been a national scandal for decades. But […]
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Suing Over Speech
July 2, 2014
By Jake New at Inside Higher Ed WASHINGTON – The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education filed four lawsuits Tuesday, alleging that three state universities and one community college maintain unconstitutional speech codes and have restricted the free speech of students and faculty members. The lawsuits – filed against Chicago State University, Citrus College, Iowa State University and Ohio University – are the start of a larger campaign that FIRE is calling the Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project. For every lawsuit FIRE wins, whether through a ruling or a settlement, the organization will sue another college. FIRE had previously, and with […]
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Group Files Suit to End Campus Speech Codes
July 1, 2014
By Christine Rousselle at Townhall FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, filed four lawsuits today against universities with restrictive speech codes on campus. The universities named in the suits are Ohio University, Chicago State University, Iowa State University, and Citrus College (Calif.). “Unconstitutional campus speech codes have been a national scandal for decades. But today, 25 years after the first of the modern generation of speech codes was defeated in court, 58% of public campuses still hold onto shockingly illiberal codes,” said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff. “For 15 years, FIRE has fought for free speech on campus using public awareness as […]
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The FIRE Launches National Litigation Effort against Campus Speech Codes
July 1, 2014
By William A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection Almost daily we report here and at College Insurrection on the almost insane application of campus speech codes, frequently utilized disproportionately against non-politically correct (i.e. conservative) students and groups. Speech codes are closely related to other forms of campus oppression, like the stripping of due process rights for men accused under vague and overly-broad definitions of sexual assault and subjected to kangaroo courts. It all part of enforcing compliance with a dominant campus ideology (almost always progressive and radical feminist). Our friends at The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) have led the fight against speech codes for […]
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First Amendment Defender FIRE Coordinates Four Free Speech Lawsuits against Public Universities
July 1, 2014
By Morgan Chalfant at Red Alert Politics In a continued effort to stand up for free speech on college campuses, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) announced its participation in four lawsuits Tuesday to uphold the First Amendment rights of students and faculty in our nation. The organization announced these suits as part of its “Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project,” which was launched at a press conference Tuesday in Washington, D.C., at the National Press Club. FIRE President Greg Lukianoff described the project as a “massive litigation effort” that the organization is taking up in partnership with a team of lawyers at Davis Wright […]
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‘Massive litigation Campaign’ Launched Against University Speech Codes
July 1, 2014
By Greg Piper at The College Fix Public colleges that retain speech codes were given notice Tuesday by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education that they could be hit with costly First Amendment lawsuits. The group announced it had filed four lawsuits Tuesday against schools in the Midwest and California – on top of two filed in the past several months – at a press conference in Washington, D.C. Two of them involve banned T-shirts. FIRE is planning a “massive litigation campaign” under the Stand Up For Speech project, President Greg Lukianoff told the press conference. “We’ve been hesitant to […]
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Free Speech Movement
July 1, 2014
By James Taranto at The Wall Street Journal FIRE is attempting to light one. The Philadelphia-based Foundation for Individual Rights in Education today filed four lawsuits challenging campus censorship at institutions across the country: • At Citrus Community College in Glendora, Calif., Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle “was threatened with removal from campus by an administrator for asking a fellow student to sign a petition protesting NSA surveillance of American citizens.” He was accused of expressive activity without a permit and outside the designated “free speech zone,” which according to FIRE’s calculations “comprises just 1.37% of campus.” • At Iowa State University, two members of the campus chapter […]
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In Major Announcement, FIRE Says It Will Sue Every College With a Speech Code Until Speech Codes Die Forever
July 1, 2014
By Robby Soave at Reason Online The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education announced a major litigation effort Tuesday against universities that maintain clearly illegal speech codes. With help from the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine, FIRE is suing several universities that manifestly and unconstitutionally deprive their students of First Amendment rights. “Universities’ stubborn refusal to relinquish their speech codes must not be tolerated,” said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff during a press conference. For now, suits have been filed against Ohio University, Iowa State University, Chicago State University, and Citrus College in California. These universities have all trampled students’ free speech […]
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Lawsuits Aim at Campus Free-Speech Limits
July 1, 2014
By Mary Beth Marklein and Hoai-Tran Bui at USA Today Lawsuits filed Tuesday by an education foundation accuse three state universities and a community college of restricting free speech of students and faculty, the first public volley of a nationwide campaign to challenge campus policies it says are unconstitutional. The cases involve T-shirt designs for student organizations at Iowa State and Ohio universities, a faculty blog at Chicago State University and a student at Citrus College in Glendora, Calif., who says he was told he would be kicked off campus unless he stayed within a designated area while seeking signatures for a […]
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Citrus College, Ohio State University Targeted by Free Speech Organization’s Lawsuit
July 1, 2014
Note: this article is a repost from the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. It erroneously states that the Ohio State University is subject to a free speech lawsuit. The school is in fact Ohio University. By Jason Henry at San Gabriel Valley Tribune GLENDORA >> A national organization focused on free speech rights for students named Glendora-based Citrus College and three Midwest universities in four lawsuits filed on behalf of students who claimed their constitutional rights were violated. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) launched the lawsuits in collaboration with students and faculty at Citrus College, Ohio State, Iowa State and […]
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Nonprofit Launches New Effort against Campus Speech Codes
July 1, 2014
By Kevin Daily at Washington Examiner The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education on Tuesday announced a significant litigation effort to fight campus speech codes in colleges and universities across the country. FIRE, a non-profit foundation that advocates for academic freedom, filed four separate lawsuits against Ohio University, Iowa State University, Chicago State University, and Citrus College in California. The filings launched FIRE’s new Stand Up for Free Speech Litigation Project, a national effort aimed at eliminating campus speech codes. FIRE president Greg Lukianoff characterized speech policies on most college campuses as “unambiguously unconstitutional” and vowed to persevere. “The lawsuits will continue until campuses […]
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Trouble over T-Shirts Just Landed 2 State Universities in Court
July 1, 2014
By Tyler Kingkade at The Huffington Post Two Midwest state universities are being hauled into court over what campus groups can and can’t say on their T-shirts. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education said Tuesday that it has filed lawsuits against Iowa State University, for denying marijuana reform advocates the use of the school mascot on their T-shirts, and against Ohio University, for directing a student government-related group not to wear T-shirts with a double entendre. Students from the two schools joined FIRE, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit, at a press conference in Washington, D.C., announcing the suits. FIRE also said it was suing […]
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Education Group Announces All-out War on Campus Speech Codes
July 1, 2014
By Blake Neff at The Daily Caller The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a group advocating free speech on college campuses, announced Tuesday that it is launching a major legal offensive against universities it says are enforcing illegal speech codes. “Universities’ stubborn refusal to relinquish their speech codes must not be tolerated,” FIRE president Greg Lukianoff said at press conference held by the organization. Currently, the group will back four lawsuits against four different schools for alleged violations of speech rights. The lawsuits involve a diverse array of campus incidents. For lawsuits against Iowa State University and Ohio University, […]
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Student Sues Citrus College District over Free Speech Restrictions
July 1, 2014
By Teresa Watanabe at Los Angeles Times Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle is a passionate libertarian who was thrilled to attend Citrus College in Glendora for what he imagined would be a quintessential college experience of unbridled debate. But after he arrived last year, he learned that the college required all petitioning, pamphleting and other expressive activities be confined to a small “free speech area” on the campus quad. And when he launched his first petition effort last fall, he said — against spying by the National Security Agency — an administrator told him he was outside the designated zone and warned that he […]
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Students Challenge Free-Speech Rules on College Campuses
July 1, 2014
By Teresa Watanabe at Los Angeles Times College students in California and three other states filed lawsuits against their campuses Tuesday in what is thought to be the first-ever coordinated legal attack on free speech restrictions in higher education. Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle, a 20-year-old studying computer science, alleged that Citrus College in Glendora had violated his 1st Amendment rights by restricting his petitioning activities to a small “free-speech zone” in the campus quad. According to Sinapi-Riddle’s complaint, a campus official stopped him last fall from talking to another student about his campaign against spying by the National Security Agency, saying he had […]
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Advocacy Group Sues 4 Universities in Challenge to Policies It Says Curb Free Speech
July 1, 2014
By Jennifer Medina at The New York Times LOS ANGELES — Arguing that free speech is being stifled at college campuses across the country, a Philadelphia-based advocacy group on Tuesday filed lawsuits against four universities, seeking to force the schools to revise policies that the group says restrict some forms of speech. The group, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, singled out four schools that it says squelched free speech in noteworthy ways — by banning certain T-shirts on campus, for example, or by trying to shut down a faculty blog that criticized the administration — and said it planned to […]
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Wronging student rights
September 3, 2005
By Greg Lukianoff in The Boston Globe As summer ends and college students return to campus, a number of dreadful court decisions may cause them to wonder if their rights have taken a permanent vacation. While the past decades have hardly been a golden age for student rights, there was good reason to be optimistic in recent years. Speech codes fell at colleges from New York to California, the Department of Education finally clarified that “harassment” does not mean just being offended, and Texas Tech University had to admit that its lone 20-foot-wide “free speech gazebo” was inadequate space for […]
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Liberating America’s Intellectual Gulags
April 15, 2005
David French knows what intimidation is. French, the new President of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, graduated from Harvard Law School in the early 1990s. One might say that anyone with similar credentials ought to know the definition of intimidation – but French’s experience is a bit more personal than that.“As a pro-life, Christian conservative, I received death threats in my campus mailbox, was shouted down by students and (once) was even shouted down in class by my own professor,” he says about his years in Cambridge. French now spends much of his time explaining to university general […]
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Survey: many college students fuzzy on first amendment rights
January 1, 2004
PHILADELPHIA — One out of four college students in a nationwide survey was unable to name any of the freedoms protected by the First Amendment, according to a free-speech watchdog group.“These survey results are disheartening, but they unfortunately are not surprising,” says Alan Charles Kors, president of the nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).Even among campus administrators who were surveyed, from presidents to assistant deans, 11 percent couldn’t name any specific First Amendment rights, the survey indicated. And when asked which freedom the amendment addresses first, only 2 percent of the students and 6 percent of the administrators […]
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Tentative resolution reached in free speech lawsuit
October 1, 2003
By Jonathan Montalvo at The Clarion Online Faced with a recent lawsuit over the campus free speech area regulations, administrators at Citrus College have agreed to a settlement with 20-year-old student activist Chris Stevens. Under the compromise, the college’s insurance carrier will pay Stevens’ legal fees totally, $24,500. College officials have also agreed to suspend campus regulations on free speech areas and work to formulate a policy conducive to free speech. Stevens originally filed the lawsuit against Citrus College on May 20. He alleged that college regulations designating free speech areas violated freedom of speech by restricting free speech to only […]
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Speech Codes: Alive and Well at Colleges…
August 1, 2003
By Greg Lukianoff and Harvey Silverglate at The Chronicle of Higher Education Five years ago, a higher-education editor for The New York Times informed one of us, Harvey Silverglate, that Neil L. Rudenstine — then president of Harvard University — had insisted that Harvard did not have, much less enforce, any “speech codes.” Silverglate suggested the editor dig deeper, because virtually any undergraduate could contest the president’s claim. A mere three years earlier, the faculty of the Harvard Law School had adopted “Sexual Harassment Guidelines” targeted at “seriously offensive” speech. The guidelines were passed in response to a heated campus […]
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College policy must be fair
June 16, 2003
Pasadena Star-News FREE speech, guaranteed in our Constitution, yet oh, such a can of worms. We sympathize with the leadership at Citrus College trying to balance the right of students to protest and the needs of students who simply want to go about their studies and classes without interruption. We might not necessarily disagree with zones of protest if they are broad enough to facilitate free expression. Clearly, administration offices — often the site of sit-ins, et al., to protest college policy — ought not be off-limits. It’s the process at Citrus with which we take issue. Trustees at the […]
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Citrus College trustees rescind free speech zones
June 5, 2003
By Terry Webster at The San Gabriel Valley Tribune The Citrus College Board of Trustees Thursday rescinded two policies that led to a federal lawsuit over free speech. The board’s action does away with free speech zones on campus and restrictions on student participation in demonstrations. “We wanted to err on the side of caution,’ Edward Ortell, board president, said after the meeting. College President Michael Viera said there will be a committee of students and staff organized in the fall to design new policies. On May 20, student Chris Stevens filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the […]
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Meese to Universities: Let’s Have Diversity of Thought
March 12, 2003
By Wes Vernon at NewsMax WASHINGTON – A California college professor who told her students to write President Bush to protest a war in Iraq is causing a pro-American backlash. And a former U.S. attorney general says philosophical diversity in campus faculties is a remedy to such abuses. “I think we need diversity of opinion and world outlook on campus faculties,” Reagan Attorney General Edwin Meese told NewsMax.com. Noting the lopsided leftist tilt of most university instructors (which NewsMax has documented in the past), Meese said: “Diversity in faculty view is important. Why not? They favor diversity on everything else.” […]
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Assignments get teacher in trouble
March 11, 2003
By Terry Webster at The San Gabriel Valley Tribune College speech instructor allegedly told students to write antiwar letters GLENDORA — A teacher who allegedly asked students to write antiwar letters to President George W. Bush for extra credit has prompted hundreds of angry e-mails and telephone calls from free-speech activists throughout the country, Citrus College President Louis Zellers said Monday. Most of the e-mails appear to be in support of the college’s decision to place part-time speech instructor Rosalyn Kahn on administrative leave, said Samuel Lee, an associate dean for language arts and foreign languages at the 10,000-student community college. In addition […]
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Anti-war professor violated students’ rights
March 11, 2003
By Audrey Hudson at The Washington Times A college professor violated her student’s free-speech rights when she ordered them to write anti-war letters to President Bush and penalized students who refused the assignment, the California school determined. An apology letter for the incident has been sent to Mr. Bush “explaining the illegitimate nature of the assignment and requesting that all letters associated with the assignment be retracted,” said Louis E. Zellers, president of Citrus College. The letters were part of a required speech class taught by Rosalyn Kahn, who was put on a leave of absence last week. Her classes at […]
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Citrus College Will Sanction Instructor Accused of Giving Extra Credit for Letters Opposing War
March 10, 2003
By Lawrence Biemiller at The Chronicle of Higher Education Citrus College will sanction a part-time instructor whose students said she offered them extra credit for writing and sending letters to President Bush that opposed going to war with Iraq. Officials of the community college, which is located near Los Angeles, said that a dean met with students in the course on Thursday and that they “were clear in their understanding that they would only receive credit if they wrote ‘protest’ letters.” The instructor, Rosalyn Kahn, could not be reached on Sunday for comment. But in a brief comment to the Los […]
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Banned Books, Slavery, Hooters, Language
March 10, 2003
By Scott Norvell at Fox News The ever-vigilant Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports that a professor at Citrus College in Glendora, Calif., forced her students to write antiwar letters to President Bush and penalized their grades when some refused. Professor Rosalyn Kahn demanded that students in her Speech 106, which is a required course, also write to a state senator expressing the same anti-war sentiments. When several students asked if they could write letters supportive of Bush instead, she told them that would not be acceptable and their grades would suffer if they did so. “While professor Kahn is […]
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Instructor Placed on Leave Over Letters
March 8, 2003
By Rebecca Trounson at The Los Angeles Times A speech instructor at Citrus College has been placed on administrative leave after students complained that she told them they could earn extra credit by writing to President Bush to protest a possible war with Iraq, a college official said Friday. Rosalyn Kahn, a part-time instructor at the two-year college in Glendora, told students in January that they would not receive extra credit if they used their letters to express other political views, including support for the war, said Samuel T. Lee, associate dean for language arts and foreign languages at the college. […]
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College to apologize to Bush for professor
March 8, 2003
By Lou Marano at United Press International WASHINGTON, March 7 (UPI) — The president of a California college is sending a letter to President Bush apologizing for an instructor who gave students extra credit for writing anti-war missives to the White House. Citrus College President Louis E. Zellers wrote that Professor Rosalyn Kahn “did abuse her authority” in assigning students in her Speech 106 class to write letters to Bush protesting the possible war with Iraq. “Students were clear in their understanding that they would only receive credit if they wrote ‘protest’ letters,” Zellers said in a letter of thanks to […]
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Demonstration Cut Short by Administrator
November 20, 2002
Two pro-life activists were arrested Nov. 13 after refusing to leave the Citrus College campus. Harry Rader and Dan McCullough, members of the pro-life group, Survivors, were arrested just before 1 p.m. Lt. Tim Dech, watch commander at Glendora Police Department, said that the men were cited for violating §626.4 of the California Penal Code, which gives designated community college officials the authority to remove a person or persons from a campus if “there is reasonable cause to believe that such a person has willfully disrupted the orderly operation of such campus…” Six members of the pro-life group started a […]
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On campus, even the Constitution isn’t safe on Constitution Day
September 17, 2018
Much of FIRE’s advocacy on behalf of college students’ civil rights — including freedom of speech, conscience, press, and more — springs from the guidance of a single source: The United States Constitution. But despite its status as the nation’s preeminent founding legal document, some public campus administrators still don’t fully understand the expressive rights it grants to students. In fact, some of the most cringeworthy, eyebrow-raising, and downright ironic FIRE cases to date involve students getting in major trouble for trying to pass out copies of the Constitution itself. In honor of Constitution Day, FIRE looks back at some notable […]
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FIRE Celebrates Constitution Day 2015
September 17, 2015
Today is Constitution Day, marking the 228th anniversary of the day the drafters signed the U.S. Constitution. It’s a day we cherish at FIRE for many reasons, but particularly because so many students celebrate by exercising their First Amendment rights on campus. Sometimes the simple act of handing out a copy of the Constitution can gain national attention. For instance, on Constitution Day 2013, Robert Van Tuinen, trying to increase awareness of his campus chapter of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), was stopped from handing out Constitutions at Modesto Junior College in California. That incident prompted the first lawsuit in […]
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Media Spreads the Word About Stand Up For Speech Lawsuit Victories
December 10, 2014
Last week, in the space of 24 hours, FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project scored two victories in the fight for First Amendment rights on campus. On December 2, 2014, the University of Hawaii (UH) agreed to a settlement with two students, Merritt Burch and Anthony Vizzone, who had been stopped from passing out copies of the U.S. Constitution and ordered to keep their protest against the National Security Agency inside the Hilo campus’ free speech zone. The next day, California’s Citrus College settled with student Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle, who sued the school with FIRE’s help after he was forbidden […]
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Second Victory in 24 Hours: College that Suppressed Anti-NSA Petition Settles Lawsuit
December 3, 2014
LOS ANGELES, December 3, 2014—Today, Citrus College in California agreed to settle a student’s free speech lawsuit for $110,000, marking the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s (FIRE’s) second victory for the First Amendment in 24 hours. Student Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle filed the federal lawsuit in July as part of FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project. Sinapi-Riddle was threatened with removal from campus for soliciting signatures for a petition against domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) outside of Citrus’s tiny “free speech area.” In addition to the monetary settlement for Sinapi-Riddle’s damages and attorneys’ fees, Citrus has revised […]
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VIDEO: The Fight for Free Speech at Citrus College
November 5, 2014
Today, FIRE released a new video that chronicles Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project plaintiff Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle’s fight for free speech at Citrus College in California. As Torch readers may recall, Sinapi-Riddle’s troubles with Citrus College began September 17, 2013—Constitution Day—when he asked another student to sign a petition protesting the National Security Agency’s surveillance program outside of the school’s designated free speech zone. A campus administrator at Citrus threatened Sinapi-Riddle with removal from campus for engaging in this conversation outside of the “free speech area,” which comprises just 1.37 percent of the Citrus campus. With FIRE’s help, Sinapi-Riddle sued […]
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Constitution Day 2014: What a Difference a Year Makes
September 18, 2014
September 17, 2013—last year’s Constitution Day—turned out to be a dark moment in the history of free speech on America’s campuses. That was the day Robert Van Tuinen was stopped from handing out Constitutions on the campus of Modesto Junior College (MJC) in California. He had neglected to sign up to use the school’s tiny “free speech area,” the only place that a student was allowed to hand out literature. On the same day, an administrator at Citrus College (also in California) told student Vinny Sinapi-Riddle that he could be removed from campus for seeking another student’s signature on a […]
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VIDEO: Students Pass Out Constitutions on Constitution Day, Campus Does Not Implode
September 18, 2014
Citrus College in California, like many other colleges and universities around the country, enacted policies to quarantine student speech to a tiny—and unconstitutional—“free speech area.” Last year, student Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle was even threatened with removal from campus by an administrator for asking a fellow student to sign a petition protesting NSA surveillance of American citizens outside the college’s “free speech area.” That’s why FIRE announced a lawsuit against Citrus College this July, challenging this policy and others that limited free speech on campus. The college has put enforcement of its unconstitutional speech codes on hold while litigation is in process. […]
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Citrus College Suspends Enforcement of Challenged Policies as Lawsuit Proceeds
September 11, 2014
Late yesterday, Citrus College in California agreed to largely suspend enforcement of the three policies challenged in Sinapi-Riddle v. Citrus Community College District. The First Amendment lawsuit challenging Citrus College’s policies was filed on July 1 on behalf of student Vinny Sinapi-Riddle as part of FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project. Specifically, Citrus College has agreed to cease prohibiting students from engaging in spontaneous expressive activity outside of the institution’s tiny “Free Speech Area,” established by institutional policy AP 3900 (PDF). Students are still prohibited from congregating or handing out printed matter within 25 feet of doorways and indoor […]
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Students Return to Campus Censorship, But Fight Back with FIRE
September 2, 2014
PHILADELPHIA, September 2, 2014—As millions of college students arrive on campus this fall—many for the first time—few of them realize that nearly 59 percent of our nation’s colleges maintain policies that clearly and substantially restrict speech protected by the First Amendment. Too many students will realize that the rights they took for granted as Americans have been denied to them only after they face charges and disciplinary action for speaking their minds. But this year, campus censorship faces a new deterrent: FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project, which aims to finally bring an end to unconstitutional and illiberal speech […]
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Creeley in ‘Los Angeles Register’ on Citrus College’s History of Censorship
July 24, 2014
Citrus College’s First Amendment troubles didn’t just start when an administrator stopped student Vinny Sinapi-Riddle from gathering petition signatures on campus last September 17, Constitution Day. In fact, as FIRE’s Will Creeley wrote for the Los Angeles Register earlier this month, Citrus was trying to keep Sinapi-Riddle inside precisely the kind of “free speech area” that Citrus agreed to eliminate in 2003 after another student took Citrus to court to challenge its restrictions on speech.
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Virginia Postrel on Misguided Support for Free Speech Zones
July 14, 2014
FIRE’s new Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project has received a lot of attention since it was launched on July 1—much of it from free speech advocates who recognize the need for court cases aimed at striking down campus speech codes. Today, Bloomberg View columnist and FIRE Board of Directors member Virginia Postrel writes to address remarks from some skeptics of the project, including those who advocate for free speech zones.
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This Fourth of July, Students and Faculty Are ‘Retracing the Steps to Free Speech’
July 4, 2014
We learn in grade school that freedom of speech is the hallmark of a free nation and the cornerstone of democracy. Yet the urge to censor seems almost irresistible, no matter who wields authority. As FIRE followers know all too well, public colleges and universities routinely restrict and punish constitutionally protected expression. In academia, where First Amendment freedoms are most precious, they are at serious risk. Nearly 60 percent of the 427 institutions that FIRE has surveyed maintain policies that clearly and substantially infringe upon freedom of speech.
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FIRE’s Shibley in ‘Washington Post’: Lawsuits ‘About to Become a Lot More Common’
July 2, 2014
Following yesterday’s launch of FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project, FIRE Senior Vice President Robert Shibley takes to The Washington Post today to explain why litigation is necessary:
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Help Students and Professors Stand Up For Speech! Support FIRE Today
July 2, 2014
This week was an exciting one for FIRE, as we took a huge step forward in the fight for free expression on campus with the launch of our Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project. While we’re proud to usher in this new era in FIRE’s history, we’re even prouder to do so alongside the brave students and faculty members who have taken this opportunity to stand up for speech. We hope you will consider supporting these plaintiffs as they fight back against campus censorship.
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Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project Makes Media Splash
July 2, 2014
Yesterday, FIRE launched our new Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project, a national effort to eliminate unconstitutional speech codes through targeted First Amendment lawsuits. Within minutes of the announcement, major media outlets were spreading the word, and over the past 24 hours, the nation’s top newspapers have reported on this big step in the fight for free speech on campus. Here is some of yesterday’s and today’s news coverage of Stand Up For Speech and the four lawsuits FIRE brought yesterday with the help of law firm Davis Wright Tremaine:
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FIRE Brings Four Free Speech Lawsuits in One Day
July 1, 2014
WASHINGTON, July 1, 2014—This morning, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) coordinated the filing of lawsuits against Ohio University, Chicago State University, Iowa State University, and Citrus College (Calif.). The filings launch FIRE’s new Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project, a national effort to eliminate unconstitutional speech codes through targeted First Amendment lawsuits. The project and lawsuits were announced today at a press conference at the National Press Club. FIRE has retained preeminent First Amendment attorney Robert Corn-Revere of the national law firm Davis Wright Tremaine as counsel for students and faculty members participating in the Stand Up […]
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This Month in FIRE History: Speech Code Falls at Citrus College
June 19, 2012
Last week, United States District Judge Timothy S. Black held that the University of Cincinnati’s (UC’s) “free speech zone” policy “violates the First Amendment and cannot stand.” This victory came after FIRE helped coordinate a federal lawsuit in cooperation with Ohio’s 1851 Center for Constitutional Law on behalf of UC’s chapter of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), a campus group that had its First Amendment rights suppressed while attempting to gather signatures for a statewide petition. This was not FIRE’s first such victory, however. Almost nine years ago to the day, FIRE announced the first victory of our Speech Code […]
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This Month in FIRE History: Victory for Freedom of Conscience at Citrus College; Coerced Student Anti-War Letters Repudiated by Administration
March 13, 2009
As we at FIRE often say, as dangerous as it is to tell citizens what they can and cannot say, it is far worse to tell them what they must say and, worse still—what they must believe. Unfortunately, we have far too many examples of colleges doing exactly that. In February of 2003, Citrus College joined a list of schools that have coerced students to lobby the government for beliefs that they did not agree with. The case began when Professor Roslyn Kahn offered extra credit to students who wrote letters to President Bush protesting the war in Iraq. Several […]
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Free Speech Zones, Past and Present
July 10, 2007
In yesterday’s Campus Alert, FIRE’s weekly column in the New York Post, we discussed the disturbing prevalence of free speech zones at America’s public universities. Providing readers with a representative sample of schools that either currently maintain free speech zones or have done so in the past, we wrote: Onerous speech zones have been reported at Clemson University in South Carolina, Western Illinois University, Florida State University, University of Nebraska at Omaha, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, University of Oregon, California State University at Chico, West Virginia University, University of Nevada at Reno, Citrus College in California and the University of […]
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