U. Central Florida “Discriminatory-Harassment Policy Likely Violates The First Amendment” Rules Federal Appeals Court

[excalibur]

A huge win for the First Amendment. A much-needed rebuke to the evil wokesters.

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And it just won a big victory against UCF in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, with a finding that the lower court improperly denied a preliminary injunction.​

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From the Opinion:​

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In this appeal from the denial of a request for a preliminary injunction, we are asked to decide whether two speech-related pol-icies promulgated by the University of Central Florida—one that prohibits multiple forms of expression that are deemed to consti-tute “discriminatory harassment” and another that aims to address so-called “bias-related incidents”—likely violate the First Amend-ment. We must also decide, as a threshold matter, whether the plaintiff—an organization called Speech First, Inc.—has standing to challenge the policies’ constitutionality.

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We hold (1) that Speech First has standing to sue because the challenged policies chill its members’ speech and (2) that the discriminatory-harassment policy likely violates the First Amendment on the grounds that it is an overbroad and content- and view-point-based regulation of constitutionally protected expression. Because the district court never considered the bias-related-incidents policy’s constitutionality on the merits—having erroneously concluded that Speech First lacked standing to challenge it—we re-mand for a determination of that issue.

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The court described the policy, which is similar to policies on many campuses:​

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So, in sum: The discriminatory-harassment policy prohibits “verbal, physical, electronic, or other conduct” based on a long list of characteristics including, among others, “religion [or] non-reli-gion,” “genetic information,” and “political affiliation[].” The pol-icy applies to any conduct that, for instance, “unreasonably . . . al-ters” another student’s “participation in a university program or activity.” It specifies that discriminatory harassment “may take many forms”—including, broadly, “verbal acts, name-calling, graphic or written statements . . . or other conduct that may be hu-miliating”—and it utilizes a “totality of known circumstances” ap-proach, based on a non-exhaustive list of factors, to determine whether a speaker’s expression satisfies the “unreasonabl[e] . . . al-ter[ation]” standard. Lastly, the policy prohibits students not only from committing the specified acts, but also from “[c]ondoning,” “encouraging,” or even “failing to intervene” to stop them.

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Separate from the discriminatory-harassment policy—but seemingly aimed at addressing similar issues—UCF maintains a policy which seeks to prevent and redress what it calls “bias-related incidents.” ….

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So again, to sum up: The bias-related-incidents policy cre-ates a mechanism by which a UCF student can be anonymously accused of an act of “hate or bias”—i.e., an “offensive” act, even if “legal” and “unintentional,” that is directed toward another based on any of a number characteristics that echo (but do not precisely mirror) those listed in the discriminatory-harassment policy. The JKRT “monitor"

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U. Central Florida “Discriminatory-Harassment Policy Likely Violates The First Amendment” Rules Federal Appeals Court

"it is an overbroad and content- and view-point-based regulation of constitutionally protected expression"

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