Victory for Free Speech as Third Circuit Issues Ruling against Temple University

We read:

"Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an opinion in DeJohn v. Temple University upholding a decision by a federal district court that Temple University's former speech code is unconstitutional. Temple's code prohibited, among other things, "generalized sexist remarks and behavior." In September 2007, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Third Circuit to uphold the lower court's ruling.

"The Third Circuit's ruling today is a clear and crucial victory for freedom of speech at our nation's public colleges and universities," FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. "The court's decision serves as unequivocal notice to university administrators across the country that the First Amendment still applies on campus. Today's victory demonstrates, yet again, that public universities maintain unconstitutional speech codes at their peril."

The lawsuit against Temple University was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in February 2006 by attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) on behalf of Temple student Christian DeJohn. DeJohn's complaint alleged both that Temple had engaged in actions that violated his rights and that Temple was violating the free speech rights of all of its students by maintaining an unconstitutional speech code.

Today's ruling, authored by Judge D. Brooks Smith, unequivocally states that "[d]iscussion by adult students in a college classroom should not be restricted." In holding that Temple's former speech code "provides no shelter for core protected speech," Judge Smith found the policy to be facially overbroad.

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