Apr
22
A federal civil rights lawsuit accuses the Georgia Institute of Technology of censoring students’ speech by enforcing severe speech codes, claiming that their ability to dialogue on “matters of political, cultural, and religious importance” is restricted by the school’s speech code and intolerance of dissenting students.
Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed the lawsuit on March 16 against Institute officials at Georgia Tech for violation of their students’ First Amendment right to free speech.
“Universities are supposed to be the marketplace of ideas,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David French, who heads ADF’s Center for Academic Freedom. “Despite that, officials at Georgia Tech are enforcing draconian speech codes that prohibit any kind ofspeech they deem to be ‘intolerant’.”
The two plaintiffs, Ruth Malhotra and Orit Sklar, are members of the Georgia Tech College Republicans Executive Board and active leaders on campus. The lawsuit claims that students at the school “are less free to speak and express themselves at the Institute than they are in downtown Atlanta.”
“Our clients… have been trying to change the climate at Georgia Tech literally for years,” said French. “And for their trouble they’ve had their speech censored, they’ve had their protests shut down by campus police, and most recently they had university officials warn them away from speaking any further along the lines that they were wanting tospeak.”
Compounding the problem, Georgia Tech officials implemented a scheme aimed at indoctrinating the campus community in what they promote as the correct interpretation of holy texts on issues related to homosexual behavior. Through the <a href=”http://www.safespace.gatech.edu/mission.html”>“Safe Space” program</a>, the Institute evaluates religions based on whether they favor or oppose homosexuality.
“We find it intriguing that the ACLU hasn’t shown up this time, considering their stated concern over the so-called ‘separation of church and state,’” saidFrench. “The university is clearly overstepping its bounds in interpreting religious texts and then pushing its own view upon a religiously diverse community on campus. This is indeed an unconstitutional establishment of religion that clearly violates students’ First Amendment rights to free speech and religious liberty.”
French says that Georgia Tech also withholds lawful funding to political and religious student groups on campus.
“The issues confronted here are clear examples of campus policies and programs that negatively impact so many conservative students and violate their basic rights,” said Christopher Dempsey, State Chairman of the <a href=”http://www.gacr.org”>Georgia Association of College Republicans</a>. “I applaud these members for their courageous actions, and the GACR supports their efforts to hold Georgia Tech accountable.”
ADF attorneys filed the lawsuit on March 16 on behalf of their clients, Sklar and Malhotra, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
<a href=”http://www.telladf.org/UserDocs/GeorgiaTechComplaint.pdf”>A copy of the Complaint can be seen here</a>.
