The University of South Alabama chapter of Students for Life has filed a federal complaint against the school for its policies restricting student speech, which the pro-life group argues are being abused to prevent students from effectively voicing any pro-life message.
The lawsuit alleges that two separate policies have now been used to marginalize the pro-life group – a previous “solicitation ban,” and a new “speech policy” enacted August 8. Both policies limit students’ speech rights outside specifically designated, isolated “free speech zones,” and even those who wish to express themselves inside a free speech zone must apply for a permit.
At the center of Students for Life’s lawsuit is the group’s twice-yearly “Cemetery of the Innocents” display, an arrangement of hundreds of white wooden crosses pressed into the grass representing the nearly 56 million U.S. children killed by abortion since Roe v. Wade. For at least the past two years, the group has been fighting to reach a wider audience with the memorial display.
But the university refuses to grant them exemptions from the free speech regulations it gives to numerous other groups.
According to the court filing, the previous “solicitation ban” was especially unfair to the group. It left the decision to allow student groups to speak outside the approved “zone” entirely up to Vice President of Student Affairs John Smith when it came to public common areas, and up to the dean of each academic department when it came to areas adjacent to their respective buildings.
When Students for Life applied to set up their display outside the limited “free speech zone,” in a grassy area near the university’s engineering department, they were twice denied by Dean of Engineering Michael Steadman, who said the memorial was too “controversial” and “advocates for a position that involves political and social controversy.”
Eventually, the group relented and agreed to limit the display to the small free speech zone near the student center.
The adoption of a new speech code for the 2014-15 school year gave the group hope, in that it expanded the number of areas in which students could engage in free speech without prior permission from the university. But none of the approved areas were suitable for a display like the Cemetery of the Innocents.
Since then, the group has refrained from doing any pro-life activism work, out of fear of arrest or disciplinary action.
“By restricting Students for Life USA’s speech to a small speech zone and excluding all speech from the perimeter of campus, the University was and is violating Students for Life USA’s constitutional rights,” the complaint stated. The group is asking the court to order the university to permit free speech throughout its campus, and to pay an unspecified amount of compensation to Students for Life, as well as court costs.
“Universities are supposed to be the marketplace of ideas,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Hacker, who is representing the student group in court. “Free speech should not be censored or limited to a ridiculously small area on campus, nor should students need permission to exercise their constitutionally protected freedom of speech. The First Amendment protects speech for all students in the outdoor areas of campus, regardless of their religious or political beliefs.”
“Free, spontaneous discourse on college campuses is supposed to be a hallmark of higher education rather than the exception to the rule,” added ADF Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot. “We hope that the University of South Alabama will revise its policy so that its students can exercise their constitutionally protected freedoms.”
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Similar displays have struck a nerve with pro-abortion vandals over the past several years on American university campuses and other public venues. In April, four separate pro-life displays were damaged or destroyed, including at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where pro-abortion activists defaced and trashed signs explaining the memorial; and at Winthrop University in South Carolina, where the Socialist Student Union mocked the display by sticking dozens of wire coat hangers into the ground where the crosses had been.
Other universities that have seen pro-life displays vandalized in recent years include the University of Miami, the University of Chicago, Western Kentucky University, Northern Kentucky University, Ohio State University, the University of Buffalo, and Pennsylvania’s Clarion University.