Community College Student Preacher Challenges Campus Speaker Rules

The Hampton Roads (VA) Daily Press reported yesterday on a lawsuit filed earlier this month by a Christian student against the board of the Virginia Community College System, the Hampton, Virginia-based Thomas Nelson Community College and various college officials.  The complaint (full text) in Parks v. Members of the State Board  of the Virginia Community College System, (ED VA, filed 3/13/2014), challenges the constitutionality of college rules that allow students to speak in open, outdoor areas of campus only if they are members of student organizations, and then only if they register their activity 4 days in advance.  Plaintiff, Christian Parks, was stopped after he began preaching in an open courtyard area on campus. The suit claims that the campus speaker rules violate the free speech, free exercise and due process clauses of the Constitution.