Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) and Young America’s Foundation (YAF) filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to take up a case brought by Speech First challenging bias response teams as unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
Indiana University, like too many colleges across the country, encourages students to report their classmates using an online bias reporting form any time a classmate says something that “degrades,” “marginalizes,” “demeans,” or “mocks”—in short, anything that is considered “offensive.” Reports go to campus administrators and are followed up by investigations and frequent referrals to disciplinary authorities. As a result, as SLF and YAF explain in their brief, students self-censor rather than face the potential consequences of saying something “biased.”
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Student members of Speech First want to engage in discussions on topics that are key issues in America—particularly in the current electoral landscape—including immigration, abortion, and gender identity. But if they offend their peers, they risk being reported to campus authorities, investigated, and disciplined. Since they don’t dare to risk harm to their reputations and future careers, the students have opted not to speak at all.
SLF and YAF write in their brief that Indiana University’s bias reporting system violates the First Amendment because it uses scare tactics to stifle speech on campus. Such a chilling effect is plainly unconstitutional, and the groups are calling on the Supreme Court to end bias reporting systems at Indiana University and across the country.