Students Merritt Burch and Anthony Vizzone are suing the University of Hawaii for violating their First Amendment rights after school officials prevented them from distributing copies of the U.S. Constitution.
The students were told that they could only distribute literature from within the schools “free speech zone,” which is a tiny area on the edge of campus.
“This isn’t really the ’60s anymore,” and “people can’t really protest like that anymore,” stated one administrator.
Two students are suing the University of Hawaii for violating their First Amendment rights after administrator prevented them from distributing copies of the U.S. Constitution — demonstrating a frightening lack of knowledge about the very legal document they were attempting to censor.
Students Merritt Burch and Anthony Vizzone, members of the Young Americans for Liberty chapter at UH-Hilo, were prevented from handing out copies of the Constitution at a recruitment event in January. A week later, they were again informed by a censorship-minded administrator that their First Amendment-protected activities were in violation of school policy.
The students were told that they could only distribute literature from within UH-Hilo’s “free speech zone,” a small, muddy, frequently-flooded area on the edge of campus.
Administrators further clarified their level of respect for students’ free speech rights, making comments like, “This isn’t really the ’60s anymore,” and “people can’t really protest like that anymore,” according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
The First Amendment has not been modified since the 1960s, however, and robustly protects the rights of students at public universities to hold non-disruptive protests, speak their mind and distribute literature.
Administrators also maintained that university policy took precedent over Constitutional rights, according to the complaint.
“It’s not about your rights in this case, it’s about the University policy that you can’t approach people,” said Ellen Kusano, director of Student Affairs, according to the complaint.
Greg Lukianoff, president of FIRE, could not immediately be reached for comment, but wrote in a statement that UH’s action were “absolutely unacceptable.”
He also noted that this was the second recent instance of a college censoring the distribution of copies of the Constitution. A similar thing happened at Modesto Junior College in California, where student Robert Van Tuinen successfully sued MJC for violating his rights.
Burch and Vizzone’s lawsuit is being handled by Davis Wright Tremaine, the same law firm that represented Van Tuinen. The suit asks for injunctive relief, and for the university to pay the students’ attorney fees.
Damn repubs not letting us practice free speech! Not in my country!
I’m all for Free Speech but…
In this case, I get it. They have a “zone” for such things. The rule that stopped them is in place to protect students from being bombarded by people with flyers and such while on campus – and that’s important. I’d be curious to see the details on other stories like this one. I hate it when a story is spun into something that simply did not happen and is not a problem.
Do we not have more than enough problems for the day already?
“scuse me: the ENTIRE COUNTRY is a Free Speech Zone. I see nothing in the Constitution which calls for “areas” or “zones” – Congress SHALL make no laws…..
As someone who’s born and raised in Hilo and has gone to UHH many times, these students suing the school are pseudo martyrs and are in the wrong. And this article is terribly biased.
First of all they need to grasp how SMALL UHH is. It’s an incredibly small campus in an incredibly small town. It’s the type of town where after 9PM the only thing open is one diner and Walmart. The area where students try to promote their clubs is in a pavilion that many students need to pass through to get to/from their classes. If all of these clubs were allowed to get out from behind the booth, there would be so much foot traffic that getting to class would be next to impossible.
The “free speech zone” represents approximately 0.26% of UH Hilo’s total area and is muddy and prone to flooding in Hilo’s frequent rain.
This is an arbitrary argument. Hilo floods constantly. It rains at LEAST twice a day. Some days the rain fall is so heavy that people bring their body boards and surfboards and body surf in parks and on the sides of the streets. Hilo is home to RAINFORESTS. That means rains and floods everywhere.
What I love about Hilo is that everyone is really laid back and you can do what you want and no one really cares or judges. These girls were not having their rights infringed in anyway. I can almost guarantee that the admin who asked them to just get back behind their table was doing it because those girls were just getting in the way and annoying people.
tl’dr: GTFO my way when I’m going to class plzkthanks
The University of Hawaii teaches law. This is unreal!
You know what, they say another revolutionary war won`t happen in my lifetime but I beg to differ.
and I say unto you, University of Hawaii. Go $#%&!@* yourselves. nlm
Without the constitution there would be no universities
Free speach is not a zone.
I hope this still on display? I saw and red it in person 2 times. i believe it was true i hope it still is there for my grand children and yous.
ted says:
“I hope this still on display? I saw and red it in person 2 times. i believe it was true i hope it still is there for my grand children and yous.”
From: http://www.truthandaction.org/yet-another-university-forbids-students-handing-constitution/comment-page-1/#comment-351552
Yes they can protest like that! Sue the pants off of them.