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Campus Free-Speech Zone Ruled Illegal
By Gwendolyn Bradley
A federal judge ruled in September that Texas Tech University may not require students making political speeches or passing out literature to stay inside designated "free-speech zones" or require them to seek permission before expressing their views outside such zones. A law student sued Texas Tech after administrators denied his request to give a speech outside the free-speech zone about the immorality of homosexuality. The court agreed with the student that the limits placed by the university on free speech were unconstitutional.
"To the extent the campus has park areas, sidewalks, streets, or other similar common areas, these are public forums . . . irrespective of whether the university has so designated them or not," the judge wrote in his ruling in the case, Roberts v. Haragan.
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