Table of Contents
Speech Code of the Month: Florida Gulf Coast University
FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for April 2007: Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU).
FGCU is a public institution, bound by the First Amendment. FGCU’s “Personal Abuse” policy prohibits “lewd, indecent, racist, prejudice [sic], obscene, or expressions deemed inappropriate.” This policy is unconstitutional on so many levels that it is almost hard to know where to begin. Let’s start with what is perhaps the most obvious problem: “expressions deemed inappropriate.” Who gets to do the deeming? Is it university administrators? If so, that’s an awful lot of discretion just waiting to be abused. Is it the listener, such that the university is willing to punish anything that a particularly sensitive listener deems inappropriate? You get the point. This policy is so vague and so broad that it cannot be enforced across the board, so it will necessarily be enforced arbitrarily. Moreover, even most speech that a reasonable person would deem “inappropriate” is nonetheless constitutionally protected, and cannot be prohibited by a public university like FGCU.
The ban on racist and prejudiced expression is equally problematic. First, these terms are not defined. What exactly constitutes racist expression at FGCU? Many people consider opposition to illegal immigration or affirmative action to be racist; could discussing those timely and important issues get you in trouble at FGCU? “Prejudiced” is vaguer still. A person can be prejudiced against anything and everything, since all that “prejudiced” means is “having a belief or attitude formed beforehand.” I for one am prejudiced against child molesters—could I get in trouble for expressing this opinion at FGCU? Again, the problem with prohibiting extremely broad categories of expression is obvious: who knows exactly what is banned? Who gets to decide how these extremely vague terms are defined? And, as with most “inappropriate” expression, the fact is that most “racist” or “prejudiced” expression, unpleasant as it may be, is still protected by the Constitution.
FGCU should repeal this repressive and unconstitutional policy immediately.
If you believe that your college or university should be a Speech Code of the Month, please email speechcodes@thefire.org with a link to the policy and a brief description of why you think attention should be drawn to this code.
Recent Articles
FIRE’s award-winning Newsdesk covers the free speech news you need to stay informed.
FIRE statement on Gov. Abbott’s campus anti-Semitism executive order
State-mandated campus censorship violates the First Amendment and will not effectively answer anti-Semitism.
May public officials block critics on social media? It depends, says the Supreme Court.
Supreme Court decisions vindicated FIRE on public officials’ use of personal social media accounts.
She’s back! Strossen’s new and updated edition of ‘Defending Pornography’ — First Amendment News 417
First Amendment News is a weekly blog and newsletter about free expression issues by Ronald K. L. Collins and is editorially independent from FIRE.
Cornell concedes small changes to otherwise substantially restrictive new speech policies
Cornell’s ‘Year of Free Expression’ is shaping up as a mixed bag — at best.