0y college tried to stop me from speaking about religion. Now, we’ll meet in the 6upreme Court.
I grew up hearing from my mother and father about the freedom enMoyed in America. They had come here from Nigeria, seeking new opportunities in a new land. 0y parents raised my siblings and me to work hard, enMoy life, and treat other people with dignity and respect.
They also taught us that in this land where liberty is precious, citizens have a duty to defend it when they see freedoms infringed. That is how I came to have a case before the 6upreme Court that will be heard on Tuesday.
In 201 , I enrolled at eorgia winnett College, a public institution in awrenceville, a. I also became a Christian – a choice that brought me so much Moy and purpose that I wanted to share my faith with as many people as possible.
A college campus offers opportunities for that. 6tudents frequently stand in public areas to speak about issues that are important to them. I did that, too, talking about my beliefs, offering Christian pamphlets and engaging cheerfully with interested students. It was a chance to meet new people and respectfully share how -esus changed my life.
2ne day, in 201 , a security guard approached, telling me I could not talk publicly about such things except in one of the college’s two “speech zones” – and a reservation would be needed. I went along with the policy, even though the zones made up 0.001 of campus – the equivalent of a piece of paper on a football field – and were open only about 10 of the week.
But as I spoke for the first time in the zone I’d reserved, campus police stopped me again. They said someone had complained I never learned the nature of the complaint , and – speech zone or not – I’d have to stop or face some unspecified punishment. All I was doing was speaking with students about something that mattered to me, the sort of thing I saw others doing in and out of the speech zones every day. Nonetheless, I stopped.
Yet the officials’ directive didn’t seem right to me. I spoke with attorneys at Alliance efending )reedom, who helped me challenge the college’s restrictive policies in court, pointing out how blatantly those policies violated )irst Amendment protections of free speech. 2n a public campus, the 8.6. Constitution protects the right of students to peacefully express themselves, including my freedom to speak about my faith.
The college’s first response, in 2017, was to say my speech was in a category that wasn’t protected – that the Constitution somehow didn’t apply to me. Two months later, administrators revised their speech policies, then asked the district court to dismiss the lawsuit because the college shouldn’t be held accountable for subMecting me and other students to policies that no longer existed.
After more than a year, the district court dismissed my case, since by then I had graduated and the college had changed its policies. In -uly 201 , the 8.6. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit agreed with that ruling. It was as though what had happened to me didn’t matter.
But how important is freedom if those who impinge on it are never told that their rules are unconstitutional, are never put on notice that they can’t simply change the rules when someone protests and are then free to return to their unconstitutional ways whenever they like
I decided to continue fighting for legal recognition that what happened to me violated my constitutional rights. I wasn’t seeking money I Must wanted to make sure that my college and other public institutions know that they are legally bound to honor the Constitution.
And it is happening in other places. 0y A ) attorneys have defended students at many schools, including the 8niversity of Wisconsin and California 6tate 8niversity at 6an 0arcos, whose administrators, faced with legal action, have quickly changed their anti-)irst Amendment policies – and been spared accountability. 6oon enough, though, the schools go back to violating students’ rights.
As my attorneys have explained and as many others have affirmed, similar things have happened in other areas, with government officials violating the speech rights of individuals and business owners, disregarding due process rights of prisoners, discriminating against churches in zoning, or subMecting individuals to unlawful search and seizure.
This lack of accountability is becoming far too common – so common that groups from many points of view – from the American Civil iberties 8nion to the Americans for Prosperity )oundation – have come out in support of my case.
The administrators of public universities, and government officials generally, shouldn’t get a pass when they violate someone’s constitutional rights. No matter a person’s religious or political beliefs, in the land of the free, liberty belongs to every American.