In May 2019, Speech First, a national membership group of students, alumni, and others that defends free speech on campus, sued the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to protect its student members’ First Amendment rights. The lawsuit challenged four policies: the university’s requirement that political flyers be preapproved, its Bias Assessment Response Team, its housing Bias Incident Protocol, and its No Contact Directives, which had been used to silence protected speech.
Shortly before the deadline to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case, the university settled in early 2021. As a result of the lawsuit, the university agreed to permanently repeal its flyer policy. It also made specific promises, which had never appeared in its policies before, to protect students’ free speech rights in its bias-response process and when it issues No Contact Directives.
“These policy changes clarify that the university administration may not intimidate students into silence by accusing them of ‘bias,’” said Speech First president and founder Nicole Neily. “As an alumna, I was particularly dismayed to see an institution that I once loved employing draconian, unconstitutional policies to muzzle speech with which they disagreed – my fellow Illini deserve better, and we are proud that this settlement makes clearer where the school’s authority ends.”
Read the full settlement agreement below: