View Single Post
Old March 10th, 2008 #18
Alex Linder
Administrator
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
Blog Entries: 34
Default

[Republicunts are free to stomp Arab flags. Does this go for Star-of-Evil flags too? Itz free speech when you criticize Muslims, hate speech when you criticize jews. Ever notice that?]

S.F. State GOP group wins free-speech case

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

March 8, 2008

(03-07) 14:46 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- To the relief of a campus Republican group, the 417,000 students at California State University's 23 institutions no longer face the possibility of discipline for failing to be civil to one another.

The change was part of a settlement approved by a federal magistrate in Oakland this week in a lawsuit by the San Francisco State College Republicans, whose members were subjected to a disciplinary hearing after some of them stomped on two flags bearing the name of Allah during an anti-terrorism rally in October 2006.

The flags represented the militant organizations Hamas and Hezbollah and had "Allah" written on them in Arabic. A student later complained that the College Republicans had engaged in "actions of incivility" and had tried to incite violence and create a hostile environment.

A panel of students, faculty and staff held a hearing in March 2007 and found no violations of university policy. But the College Republicans and two of their leaders filed suit four months later, challenging the speech and conduct codes that led to the disciplinary proceedings.

One line in the policy manual that applies to all 23 campuses says students are expected to be civil to one another. University officials said the manual didn't set disciplinary standards or authorize punishment for incivility, but U.S. Magistrate Wayne Brazil said the Republican group at San Francisco State had been investigated for precisely that reason.

"The First Amendment permits disrespectful and totally emotional discourse," Brazil said at a hearing in November, when he announced an injunction prohibiting the university from enforcing the civility standard in any disciplinary proceeding.

This week's settlement includes a systemwide ban on punishment for incivility, along with revisions in the standards for student conduct at San Francisco State.

One change narrows the definition of sexual harassment to apply only to "severe, pervasive and objectively offensive" actions that cause harm. The previous definition covered "unwelcome conduct which emphasizes another person's sexuality."

Also eliminated was a provision authorizing discipline for any behavior that is "inconsistent with S.F. State goals, principles and policies."

In addition, the university agreed to pay $100 each to the College Republicans and two of its leaders, and $41,500 in fees to their lawyers.

The settlement is one of a series of victories won by conservative legal groups against college speech codes.

Most of the codes were adopted in the 1980s and 1990s, and prohibit what the schools described as hate speech - expressions that are abusive or demeaning to various racial, ethnic, sexual or religious groups. Opponents, who have often included the American Civil Liberties Union as well as religious conservatives, say the codes amount to censorship and an attempt to stifle debate.

The San Francisco case is "a great victory for free speech," said David Hacker of the Alliance Defense Fund, a lawyer for the College Republicans.

State university students, Hacker said, "are now more free to speak on issues that matter to them."

Although the civility standard may seem innocuous, he said, "speech codes like this are consistently enforced against Christian and conservative students across the country merely for expressing their beliefs."

Christine Helwick, the university system's general counsel, said the settlement should clear up confusion in the disciplinary code.

"Our code has always indicated, and still does, that we expect students to behave civilly toward one another," Helwick said. "In order to proceed with a disciplinary action, there has to be a specific act of incivility," such as harassment or other expressly forbidden conduct, she said.

E-mail Bob Egelko at [email protected].

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../BA8DVF7UT.DTL