In certified mailing, FIRE urges policy change at public institutions following Chicago State settlement
by Mary Zoeller
March 14, 2019
Last week, FIRE sent letters via certified mail to 59 public colleges and universities across the country to notify their leadership that—in light of our recent settlement in one of the four inaugural lawsuits that launched our Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project—their continued maintenance of unconstitutional policies may lead to a similar lawsuit.
The letters were based on the settlement of a faculty First Amendment lawsuit against Chicago State University’s Board of Trustees and several former administrators, which challenged the constitutionality of CSU’s cyberbullying and computer usage policies. In a 2017 ruling, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois rejected CSU’s attempt to throw out the suit, finding that the challenged computer usage policy’s prohibitions “appear to encompass a substantial amount of constitutionally protected expression.â€
https://www.thefire.org/in-certified-mailing-fire-urges-policy-change-at-public-institutions-following-chicago-state-settlement/
