On behalf of freshman student Brittany Mirelez, the non-profit legal group Alliance Defending Freedom filed a federal lawsuit against the Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Arizona, for violating the student's right to free speech through a school policy. According to reports, the organization and Mirelez want the college to remove the restrictive rule.
The incident between the student and the community college happened in October of last year. As reported by AZ Central, Mirelez had set-up a makeshift booth inside the campus' designated area for political expressions which has been dubbed as the "free speech zone."
According to the student, she wanted to give out copies of the U.S. Constitution to her school mates to promote her libertarian club called the Young Americans for Liberty. However, as she was passing out the documents, a staff member of the school approached her and told her to relocate to a different area. The employee told her that she was not allowed to carry out her activities in the "free speech zone" because she failed to file a permission request to use the area 48 hours in advance.
This incident led to a serious conflict between Mirelez and the community college which resulted in the former seeking legal assistance against the latter. In the lawsuit filed by Alliance Defending Freedom, the organization stated that the request policy limits the students' access to the "free speech zone." In addition, the 48-hour rule prevents spontaneity, which is one of the aspects of free speech.
"The bottom line is colleges are a place where ideas are supposed to be freely shared, not gagged," Tyson Langhofer, the lawyer representing the organization said according to the AZ Daily Sun.
"Our belief is - and we believe the first Amendment's stance - speech isn't free when students have to ask permission to speak, and then they're limited to where they can speak," he added.
The Paradise Valley Community College, however, has not yet released a statement addressing the lawsuit filed against it. But, Paul Dale, the school's president, maintained that the college values the students' right to speak freely.
According to the Daily Caller, Mirelez and the Alliance Defending Freedom are demanding the school to strike down its request policy.
In addition, as part of the settlement, the plaintiffs are also asking the college to cover their attorneys' fees.
