A California community college has agreed to strengthen free speech protections and pay $330,000 in damages to students who said its president invented reasons to restrict their anti-communist flyers.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed a 2022 lawsuit against Clovis Community College on behalf of three student members of Young America’s Foundation, a national conservative network.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston on Friday granted the students a permanent injunction overturning the school’s practice of exiling “inappropriate” or “offensive” flyers to a “free speech kiosk” in a remote part of campus.
Judge Thurston, a Biden appointee, upheld a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the policy likely violated students’ constitutional rights to free expression under the First and 14th Amendments.
She extended the injunction to the entire State Center Community College District, which oversees more than 50,000 students at Clovis and two other schools.
“State Center Community College District, its subsidiary colleges and educational centers, and their administrators, employees, and agents are permanently enjoined from using or further instituting the use of the prior Poster/Flyer Instructions,” Judge Thurston wrote in her order for the Eastern District of California.
The order noted that the State Center Community College District had already agreed to a settlement with attorneys from FIRE, a Philadelphia-based free speech group.
According to FIRE, the community college district will pay $20,000 in damages to each of the three students and $250,000 in attorneys’ fees.
The group said the SCCCD will also rewrite its campus speech codes to be viewpoint-neutral and require “First Amendment training sessions” for administrators this year and next, keeping written records of attendees and materials.
“From now on, student groups won’t have to second guess or jump through hoops just to hang a flyer on the bulletin board,” said Daniel Ortner, a FIRE attorney who represented the students.
In a statement emailed to The Washington Times, the State Center Community College District reaffirmed its commitment to “the values of the First Amendment," said it looked forward to the sessions and confirmed it had “updated its policy to apply to all campuses.”
“There were no findings of any violations of rights by any SCCCD employees, and a settlement was reached to resolve this dispute,” the district said. “Payments were funded by the SCCCD insurance pool, and not by SCCCD itself.”
According to the lawsuit , Clovis President Lori Bennett relocated school-approved flyers criticizing communist dictatorships to the remote kiosk in 2021. She claimed they didn’t advertise a specific club event, despite no policy requiring that.
The suit said Clovis also denied permission for the Young Americans for Freedom students to post anti-abortion flyers.
The complaint quotes an email from Ms. Bennett justifying her decision to move the anti-communist flyers associating China, North Korea, Vietnam and other nations with the “blind arrogance of the left.”
“If you need a reason, you can let them know that [we] agreed they aren’t club announcements,” Ms. Bennett wrote, according to court filings.
Former Clovis students Alejandro Flores, Daniel Flores and Juliette Colunga claimed victory Friday.
“We won. We showed the school they were wrong,” said Alejandro Flores.
In a statement, YAF President Scott Walker said he hopes the ruling “sends a clear message” to anyone threatening the free expression of its campus chapters.
“This is a victory not only for the rule of law but for everyone who values free speech,” said Mr. Walker, a former governor of Wisconsin.
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