Thursday, May 22, 2014

Christian Student Challenges University's Speech Code

A lawsuit was filed last week in an Oklahoma federal district court challenging the Expressive Activity Policy and Equal Opportunity Policy of Cameron University, a public university in Lawton, Oklahoma.  The complaint (full text) in Harper v. McArthur, (WD OK, filed 5/14/2014), alleges that Daniel Harper, an evangelical Christian student at the University, was prevented from handing out a flyer criticizing the beliefs of a student organization, the World Mission Society. The university claims that Harper's flyer violates the university's prohibition on "offensive" and "discriminatory" speech.  It allows literature to be handed out on campus only if it is from a student organization and has been approved for distribution by the University. The suit claims that the University speech code violates the 1st and 14th Amendments as well as the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act. Alliance Defending Freedom announced the filing of the lawsuit.