On November 20, 2019, Speech First, a national membership group of students, alumni, and others that defends free speech on campus, filed a reply brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Speech First v. Fenves, its challenge to the University of Texas at Austin’s speech policies.
The university blames everyone but itself for its unconstitutional policies. It blames high schoolers for not understanding free speech, blames a new Texas law for its decision to drop some challenged policies (policies it still defends and could bring back at any time), and blames Speech First for viewing its Campus Climate Response Team as coercive. But students, and the university’s own publications, describe the team that way. Pointing to the Sixth Circuit’s ruling against similar arguments in Speech First v. Schlissel, Speech First asked the court to reverse the trial court.
Read the full brief below:
