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Judge dismisses recent First Amendment lawsuit against OSU

Brylee Smith Staff Reporter

A free speech organization is not entitled to sue Oklahoma State University for First Amendment violations because it failed to name the student members on whose behalf it was suing, a federal trial judge ruled recently.

In dismissing Speech First’s lawsuit on April 10, District Judge Bernard M. Jones did not address the constitutionality of the OSU policies that the Washington, D.C.based organization was challenging.

In a statement, OSU said it is pleased with Jones’ ruling.

“Freedom of expression and exchange of ideas are the bedrock of what we believe at OSU,” the university said.

In a court filing, OSU said its bias response team “has received only 29 reports of alleged bias, a majority of those relating to ‘perceived offensive speech.’”

“No speech-related incident or any other incident for that matter reported to the (bias response team) has ever ‘resulted in the initiation of disciplinary proceedings or sanctions’ against a student,” the university said.

Speech First Executive Director Cherise Trump said in an email Wednesday the organization has appealed the Oklahoma City judge’s ruling to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Three other federal circuits have ruled in the organization’s favor. Six universities – the University of Central Florida, University of Houston, University of Michigan, University of Texas, University of Illinois and Iowa State University – settled lawsuits filed by Speech First. bound by those circuit decisions addressed the issue of whether an association such as Speech First has standing to sue when it uses anonymous members in the lawsuit.

In its lawsuit filed on Jan. 10, Speech First identified its members only as Student A, Student B and Student C.

Speech First challenged the constitutionality of OSU’s Code of Conduct and Harassment Policy, Computer Appropriate Use Policy and Bias-Related Incidents Policy.

“Oklahoma State and its officials have created a series of rules and regulations that deter, suppress and punish speech about the political and social issues of the day,” the lawsuit alleged. “These restrictions disregard decades of precedent.”

The lawsuit contended the policies include vague language and could “chill” student speech. For example, Speech First said, the harassment policy “gives students no details about what the University considers ‘abusive’ or ‘intimidating’ and covers a wide swath of protected speech.”

In February 2021, Speech

First challenged the constitutionality of the University of Central Florida’s harassment policy, computer use policy and Just Knights Response Team. In September, the university agreed to discontinue the Just Knights Response Team. It also paid $35,000 to Speech First.

In February 2022, Speech

First launched a case against the University of Houston. It argued the school’s harassment policy created an environment in which students were scared to voice their beliefs. The university settled the lawsuit in June by dropping “creat[ing] an intimidating, hostile,

In the first season of the show, released last fall, Kalungu-Banda invited athletes to meet

By Ben Holieway

Contributor

The orange hue seen in early October reflects not only the changing leaves of fall, but monarch butterflies on their way south. Often with a stopover in Stillwater. Each fall, North American monarchs travel from their summer breeding grounds to overwintering locations. East of the Rocky Mountains, monarchs travel as far as 3,000 miles to central Mexico, while those west of the Rockies head for the California coast.

Those bound for Mexico can take a break at OSU, where the university has been designated as a waystation for monarchs.

“Monarchs, to me, symbolize change,” said Melissa Shields, a youth pastor from Kiowa. “They start out their lives as these little caterpillars that people tend to overlook but turn into these beautiful butterflies that people admire.”

Some who follow the monarch flight talk about the great migration to Mexico every year, but a big piece is missing from the story. Monarchs typically live for two to six weeks while the migration can take up to two months. So, what happens then? Do the numbers decline, or do they repopulate? They repopulate, but only in certain sufficient places like Stillwater.

See Butterflies on 4A

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