UPDATE: District court grants request to temporarily halt enforcement of ‘unconstitutional flyer policy'
It was the opinion of the district court that the lawsuit had a “likelihood of success on the merits” based on the evidence and arguments presented in the initial filing.
Campus Reform previously reported on the incident after FIRE filed a lawsuit against the community college for repeatedly making the school’s YAF chapter take down flyers regarding abortion and communism.
The District Court of Eastern California granted Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s (FIRE) motion for a preliminary injunction preventing Clovis Community College (CCC) from implementing its ‘unconstitutional’ flyer policy.
The court laid out the prerequisites for granting an injunction, explaining that “a preliminary injunction may only be awarded ‘upon a clear showing’ of evidence that supports each relevant preliminary injunction factor.”
It was the opinion of the district court that the lawsuit had a “likelihood of success on the merits” based on the evidence and arguments presented in the initial filing.
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The court also noted that the requirement to prove “[i]rreparable harm” is easily established in First Amendment cases.
“In cases involving First Amendment challenges, irreparable injury is often presumed when the plaintiff demonstrates…[that] the mere threat of enforcement of an unconstitutional restriction on speech may create a chilling effect sufficient to show irreparable harm,” the order read.
As a result, CCC is “enjoined from enforcing the Flyer Policy in so far as it requires preapproval from College administrators or staff and prohibits ‘inappropriate or offensive language or themes.’”
FIRE staff attorney Jeff Zeman told Campus Reform, “FIRE is of course pleased that the Court granted the preliminary injunction and struck down Clovis’s prohibition on ‘inappropriate or offensive language or themes.’”
“The ban gave administrators unbridled power to decide which students could post on campus, and which could be silenced,” Zeman continued. “As we told the Court in our motion, as long as the ban remained in place, it continued to harm our clients’ – and other Clovis students’ – free speech rights.”
Zeman also explained that CCC had “filed a motion to dismiss our complaint, and FIRE has responded.”
Campus Reform previously reported on the incident after FIRE filed a lawsuit against the community college for repeatedly making the school’s YAF chapter take down flyers regarding abortion and communism.
On two separate occasions in 2021, CCC restricted or forced the chapter to remove the posters claiming they violated a 2018 policy that restricted flyers or posters with “inappropriate or offensive language or themes.”
The chapter filed the lawsuit with FIRE representing several months later on August 11, 2022.
Campus Reform contacted CCC. This article will be updated accordingly.
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