I despise the position of this group. I believe that their sign is one which engages in religiously-bigoted speech. However, consistent with my belief that there should not be viewpoint discrimination by public entities, I support the right of this group to be treated exactly like every other campus group when it comes to posting signs with political messages -- and to exercise constitutional liberties freely.

A women's group at Rhode Island College is suing the school, saying its free speech rights were violated when campus police took down signs bearing the message "Keep Your Rosaries Off Our Ovaries."

The Women's Studies Organization posted the signs near a campus entrance last December to coincide with a day of activism for women's rights. But police removed the signs within a few hours after a priest on his way to conduct a weekly Mass observed them and alerted the president of the public college, the students said.

The president, John Nazarian, then ordered the signs taken down, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of the students by the Rhode Island branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The issue is this is a public university, and a public university can't abridge anyone's free speech rights — including the students," said Jennifer Azevedo, an ACLU volunteer attorney.

The group had been negotiating with the college over the signs in the past year, but had been unable to resolve the problem and decided to sue, said Nichole Aguiar, the organization's president and a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

The complaint seeks damages and asks a judge to declare the college's acts unconstitutional. It also challenges a recently enacted policy on campus signs that the group complains is selectively enforced.

The college said in a statement it could not comment because it had not seen the complaint but added that it respected and encouraged free speech by the entire campus community.

"It is this robust exchange of views and ideas that provides our students with the opportunity to grow and learn and take advantage of the full college experience," the statement said.

An anti-abortion student group at the college, RIC 4 Life, released a statement Monday calling the signs from the women's organization offensive and disrespectful. It said it would continue working "to educate the RIC community about the gift of life."

The sort of speech restrictions that Rhode Island College (found in the article) has enacted are offensive to American values. They must be struck down so that every group -- including wrong-wing anti-life religious bigots like the Womens Study organization -- have the ability to speak freely on the campus of a public college or university.

More at FIRE's The Torch.

Posted by: Greg at 11:52 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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