Opinion

Grambling under FIRE for speech restrictions

Fergus Hodgson Contributor
Font Size:

Grambling State University is in a dispute over its prohibition of “disruptive or offensive” emails, which includes bans on all “joke emails” and offensive comments regarding “hair color.” These intrusions, along with prohibitions on political and religious discourse, have caught the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which have called for an immediate renunciation of the policy and denounced it as illegal.

The university’s approach to policing emails first gained attention with a July 13th mandate that students delete and “DO NOT FORWARD” all “political campaign solicitations,” as these would be considered a “violation of university and state policy.” Subsequently, FIRE challenged the constitutionality of the policy and described it as an inaccurate representation of Louisiana law and a “threat to freedom of expression.” FIRE director Adam Kissel called for its termination in a September 1st letter to the university’s president, Frank Pogue.

Rather than back down, on September 22ndPogue and the university came out with an even broader set of prohibitions. As she released the policy to the public, Grambling’s director of public relations, Vanessa Littleton, however, asserted that the university “does not prohibit students or employees from political expression,” The policy read as follows:

Grambling State University email system shall not to be used for the creation or distribution of any disruptive or offensive messages, including offensive comments about race, gender, hair color, disabilities, age, sexual orientation, pornography, religious beliefs and practice, political beliefs, or national origin… Sending chain letters or joke emails from a Grambling State University email account is prohibited.

The ACLU of Louisiana and FIRE described Grambling’s response as “insufficient.”

GSU’s response, rather than addressing our concerns, greatly magnifies them… [It] fails to retract or even acknowledge the prohibition on core political expression announced in its July 13 email to all students… A public university may not broadly deny its students the right to engage in such basic political speech… The policy cannot stand.

The free speech advocates also pointed out the vague language at play.

It is not clear what constitutes an “offensive message,” nor how anyone will know whether someone else will take offense at any particular message.

The enforcement mechanism, in addition to the prohibitions, also raised concerns. Employees who “receive any offensive emails … should report the matter to their supervisor immediately.” Not only are “offensive” emails off limits, employees are called to turn in others.

Pogue, via his assistants, declined the opportunity to accept an interview with the Pelican Institute. However, his interim executive assistant, Ellen Smiley, did say that “at this time we are reviewing our policies, and as soon as we have completed the process the university will release its official policy … We want to take our time with that process and do a good job.” She was not willing to say when this process would be complete or to comment any further.

With no explicit response from the university and the policy still in place, on the 1stof October FIRE’s director of legal and public advocacy, Will Creeley, sent a letter to Pogue and five other university leaders. He restated FIRE’s and the ACLU of Louisiana’s concerns — that “a plain reading of the [email policy]… reveals obvious first amendment violations” — and reminded them that the government-funded university is “legally and morally bound to protect” the First Amendment.

He and his colleagues have awarded Grambling their tongue-in-cheek “Speech Code of the Month” award, and called them to respond by October 15th. “FIRE hopes to resolve this situation amicably and swiftly,” and not just because of the public or legal pressure, but because the university would be better off without the “chilling effect” on discourse.

According to Kissel, “we almost always win free speech fights through public attention, because the public understands that free speech is very important, especially political speech. So we count on the citizens of Louisiana… to give Grambling State University a call and say, ‘Why aren’t you giving your full citizenship rights of freedom of speech to your own students and faculty members?’”

Click here to listen to an 11-minute interview with FIRE Director Adam Kissel.

Fergus Hodgson is the Capitol Bureau Reporter with the Pelican Institute for Public Policy. He can be contacted at fhodgson@pelicaninstitute.org, and one can follow him on Twitter.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel