Southeastern Legal Foundation is standing up for students'rights on campus
Southeastern Legal Foundation has filed a lawsuit against Dept. of Education, taken action after aTPUSA chapter was denied recognition, an dmore.
These days, many college students are finding that their universities take insufficient action to protect their free speech and civil rights– in fact, often colleges universities are the ones violating students’ rights in the first place. But the Southeastern Legal Foundation is working to protect student’s free speech and civil rights on college campuses.
Recently, the legal nonprofit that advocates for “limited government, individual liberties, and the free enterprise system” has taken aim at several universities and the U.S. Department of Education.
At Valdosta State University in Georgia, SLF is working to influence the school to change its policies on draconian “free speech zones,” reasoning that such practices violate students’ First Amendment rights.
The Southeastern Legal Foundation sent a second follow-up letter to Valdosta State University after a student and his guest, an employee of Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), set up a table on campus to talk to others about starting a YAL chapter on campus.
However, on the second day of tabling, the two were “met by a VSU administrator who insisted that only registered student organizations could use the area they were in and that they would need to move to the ‘free speech zone’—a tiny, out-of-the-way section of campus obscured by bushes and trees that is only open for a small part of the week. Knowing it would be harder for them to reach students from the ‘free speech zone,’ the pair complied, but reluctantly,” according to a letter SLF sent to the university.
SLF wrote in its first letter that the university’s “free speech zone” could violate the First Amendment.
In the second letter sent to the university, SLF wrote that another student was told they couldn’t use the campus space they were in for tabling and were asked to move to the “free speech zone.”
”Open discourse on campuses is critical. For many college students, this is the time in their development when they will be exposed to new ideas and perspectives. Shaping the leaders of tomorrow requires universities to provide students with access to share their ideas and hear the ideas of other students. VSU must do its part to ensure this,” wrote SLF.
At Westfield State University, a Turning Point USA chapter was denied recognition as an official student organization.
According to SLF, the Westfield State Student Government Association denied recognition to a Turning Point USA chapter that tried to organize at the institution.
After the TPUSA chapter held a promotional event to promote their new organization on campus, SGA representatives at the school found out and encouraged “students to submit complaints about TPUSA using a bias reporting form.”
SLF accused student government members of abusing their power in a letter to the university.
”When members of SGA or other students in positions of authority abuse their discretion or fail to uphold their duty to zealously represent all members of the student body, colleges must have appeals processes in place to correct the students’ wrongdoing,” wrote SLF.
SLF wrote in a letter sent on April 22 that Westfield State University should direct the student government to approve the TPUSA chapter, develop an appeals process for organizations that are denied recognition by the SGA, implement more oversight over the SGA, and train SGA members on the First Amendment and free speech rights.
The legal nonprofit also filed a lawsuit after the Department of Education dropped findings that a school district violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
SLF filed a lawsuit on April 23 against the Department of Education in relation to a public records request that the agency hasn’t responded to.
According to SLF, Evanston/Skokie School District 65 segregated staff by race during staff meetings and training programs, implemented a discipline policy that directed staff to take race into account, offers affinity groups to students, staff, and members of the community, and also requires faculty and students to participate in “privilege walks,” where they are “sorted and treated differently based solely on skin color.”
After an investigation, the Department of Education took action in January 2021 and found that the district’s policies and procedures violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
However, when President Biden took office that month, the findings were withdrawn.
SLF filed a lawsuit in Summer 2021 on behalf of a teacher and also filed a records request, which the department hasn’t responded to. SLF filed a lawsuit after being “stonewalled and ignored” by the Department of Education after filing the request.
”The corridors of power are supposed to be open for the American people. When the government dramatically abandons its efforts to enforce civil rights laws–as the Department of Education did in District 65–Americans shouldn’t have to wait months, let alone years, to find out why,” Vice President of Litigation for SLF Braden Boucek said.
