On April 22, 2021, Speech First, a national membership group of students, alumni, and others that defends free speech on campus, filed a reply brief in Speech First v. Cartwright in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Speech First asked the court for a preliminary injunction, a court order that would stop the University of Central Florida from enforcing the challenged policies while the case goes on.
Speech First argued that two federal appeals courts had already rejected the university’s defenses. The Universities of Texas and Michigan also added First Amendment disclaimers to their policies, promised the policies were never used against protected speech, and called their bias-response teams “voluntary.” The Fifth and Sixth Circuits rejected those arguments from the schools, and Speech First argued that Eleventh Circuit precedent rejects them too.
Read the full brief below:
