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Young Americans for Liberty, a conservative nonprofit with chapters on campuses, has appealed to Alabama’s Supreme Court a legal case against the University of Alabama at Huntsville and members of the University of Alabama system over the institution’s free speech policy, The Birmingham News reported.
YAL in July 2021 filed a lawsuit, which argues the institution’s preregistration requirement for free speech events is too strict and violates a 2019 state law that requires students at public institutions to be free “to engage in protected expressive activity in outdoor areas of the campus, and to spontaneously and contemporaneously assemble, speak and distribute literature.” The current campus policy requires students to request a permit in advance for free speech events and restricts those events to certain areas.
The University of Alabama at Huntsville responded to the lawsuit, stating that students are still able to gather spontaneously at a “multitude” of designated locations and that students can request an expedited permit to protest outside those designated areas.
Attorney General of Alabama Steve Marshall filed a brief supporting the university and current state law, and the lawsuit was dismissed in Madison County Circuit Court earlier this month.
