News & Analysis as of November 17, 2024

Free Speech

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The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the government from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech or the press, preventing citizens from peacefully assembling, or interfering with citizens' ability to petition the government for redress of their grievances. The First Amendment is one of the most sacred aspects of the American legal tradition and has spawned a vast body of jurisprudence and commentary. less -

Federal Judge Temporarily Prevents New Title IX Regulations From Taking Effect in Ohio

Roetzel & Andress on 6/20/2024

On June 17, 2024, a United States District Court judge in Kentucky issued a preliminary injunction preventing the 2024 Title IX regulations from going into effect in several states, including Ohio. The 2024 regulations are...more

Handling Campus Protests: Key Points for Colleges and Universities to Consider and 7 Tips for Your Protest Policy

Fisher Phillips on 5/8/2024

As protests erupt across college campuses, educational institutions are grappling with how to handle escalating situations and balance important interests like free speech and student safety. Colleges and universities are...more

Texas Students' Petition for Emergency First Amendment Ruling

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC on 3/29/2024

Campuses across the country have ongoing debates regarding many different aspects of free speech. At the heart of these debates is whether efforts to confront bias on campuses intimidate students who want to speak their mind....more

Protecting Protests on Private Campuses

Sands Anderson PC on 3/27/2024

After criticism of her testimony before Congress on antisemitism on college campuses, the President of the University of Pennsylvania, Liz Magill, resigned. And, at Pomona College, authorities arrested a professor who...more

What I Wish I Knew Then: Nadine Strossen

Pollock Cohen LLP on 3/26/2024

In "What I Wish I Knew Then" (New York Law Journal, March 22, 2024), Nadine Strossen, former President of the ALCU and Professor Emerita of Constitutional Law at New York Law School, dives into issues of particular interest...more

Lessons Higher Education Can Learn from Recent First Amendment Litigation

Alston & Bird on 3/1/2024

Our Education Team parses a pair of First Amendment cases that directly affect colleges’ and universities’ free speech policies for employees and students....more

The Academic Advisor - Education Law Insights, Issue 9, November 2023

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC on 11/8/2023

The Accreditation Overhaul for North Carolina (and Florida) Colleges - Last month, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed House Bill 8 (HB 8) into law. In addition to establishing a new computer science requirement for...more

[Webinar] DEI, Free Speech and Academic Freedom (Higher Education Series) - February 7th, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EST

Bricker Graydon LLP on 9/13/2023

The limits of First Amendment protections and principles of academic freedom in higher education institutions seem to be shifting. What are the DEI-related trends on campus? How are lower courts handling First Amendment and...more

What do I do if my freedom of speech is violated at my university?

Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman PC on 7/20/2023

College campuses have traditionally been considered bastions of free speech, where students can express their views and engage in robust discussions without fear of censorship or retaliation....more

The Academic Advisor - Education Law Insights, Issue 4, April 2023

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC on 5/1/2023

ChatGPT’s Impact on Education and Student Data Privacy - Data privacy professionals have characterized the data privacy risks associated with ChatGPT as a “nightmare.” In order to function, open artificial intelligence...more

Federal Appeals Court OKs Expulsion for High Schoolers’ Instagram Posts

TNG Consulting on 3/3/2023

The School Board expelled two students, Epple and Chen, after their violent and racist Instagram posts about classmates circulated around their high school. The students challenged the school board’s ability to discipline...more

School District’s Discipline of Students for Off-Campus Speech Affirmed by Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Franczek P.C. on 1/18/2023

A recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision held that school officials did not violate students’ First Amendment rights when disciplining them for off-campus social media posts that amounted to severe harassment...more

Off Campus, but Still Within Reach: Ninth Circuit Affirms a Public High School’s Right to Discipline Students for Online...

Miller Nash LLP on 1/4/2023

As anticipated, the Ninth Circuit has waded back into the choppy waters of student online and off-campus speech following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2021 ruling in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L and found that a...more

School District’s Discipline for Off-Campus Social Media Post Violated Student’s First Amendment Free Speech Rights

Tucker Arensberg, P.C. on 10/21/2022

In re Appeal of G.S., 269 A.3d 718, 722 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 2022), appeal denied, 61 MAL 2022, 2022 WL 2447538 (Pa. July 6, 2022) (The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court determined that the expulsion of a student for a social media...more

The Academic Advisor - Education Law Insights, Issue 2, 2022

Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC on 7/20/2022

Welcome to our second edition of The Academic Advisor - our e-newsletter focused on education law insights. We hope you enjoyed our first issue and found it helpful. Our aim is to support the work that you do by bringing...more

SCOTUS Sides with Public School Football Coach Who was Disciplined for Praying After Games

Fisher Phillips on 6/28/2022

The SCOTUS recently ruled in favor of a public high school football coach who lost his job after praying in front of students at the 50-yard line following the school’s football games. The Court held that the coach did not...more

General Counsel's Corner: Student Social Media and Free Speech on Campus

Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC on 4/28/2022

Free speech on campus—and off—has become a flashpoint for U.S. colleges and universities. Students’ ability to post their comments and concerns online, to forward messages to others for whom they may not have been intended,...more

General Counsel's Corner: Bias Response Teams - No Easy Answers

Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC on 2/2/2022

Over the past decade, bias response teams have proliferated on college campuses. A survey conducted in 2016 concluded that bias response teams (BRT) existed on “at least 231 campuses” across the United States. Motivated by...more

The First Amendment Protects Only Some Arizona Students

Jaburg Wilk on 1/26/2022

Many students are generally familiar with the First Amendment of the Constitution, but they often overlook that it only confers the right “to petition the Government for a redress of such grievances.” As a result, only...more

The Authority to Punish Lewd Speech is Limited Once a Student Exits School Grounds

Tucker Arensberg, P.C. on 10/11/2021

Mahanoy Area Sch. Dist. v. B. L. by and through Levy, 141 S. Ct. 2038 (2021). The United States Supreme Court holds that while schools can sometimes regulate student speech that takes place off-campus, the school district...more

U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Student’s Off-Campus Free Speech Rights

Saiber LLC on 8/9/2021

The September 1, 2020 Trending Law Blog post discussed how the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., 964 F.3d 170 (2020), upheld a public school student’s First...more

Disciplining Faculty in a Public Higher Education Setting: Growing Number of Jurisdictions Recognize “Academic Exception”

Fisher Phillips on 6/2/2021

Can a public university discipline a professor for refusing to address a student by the student’s preferred pronoun? If so, can the professor defend his conduct by alleging his religious beliefs prohibit him from recognizing...more

Employment Law Now V-96- LOTS of Big Employment Law Developments

Cozen O'Connor on 5/17/2021

In today's new episode, Michael Schmidt talks about social media and schools (and what that means for employers generally), spousal claims against employers for getting COVID-19 at home, the withdrawal of the independent...more

Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. – The Student Free Speech Case Every Public School Administrator Should Know About

Husch Blackwell LLP on 5/4/2021

On April 28th, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., a student free speech case that every public school district in the country needs to be watching...more

Justices Show Little Spirit for Expanding Tinker: SCOTUS Wrestles with Appropriate Standard for Regulating Off-Campus Student...

Rumberger | Kirk on 5/3/2021

In 1969, the Supreme Court recognized both that students do not surrender their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gates, but that schools do have the right to discipline students for speech that could cause...more

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