A federal judge in Texas has enjoined a recently passed state law that would have prohibited campus expressive activities between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.
Photo via The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
A Christian campus group, the Fellowship of Christian University Students (FOCUS) at the University of Texas-Dallas, was the lead plaintiff in the case. FOCUS argued that its evening prayer gatherings and guest-led services would be curtailed by the law’s nighttime ban on “expressive activities” and its ban on invited speakers.
The Campus Protection Act was passed by the Texas legislature earlier this year in reaction to the pro-Palestine activities on many college campuses and became effective on September 1.
The Act amended a previous law from 2019 that strengthened free expression on college campuses. In addition to the time limitations for free expression, the Act also bans invited speakers, the use of “amplified sound,” and the use of drums or other percussive instruments — all during the last two weeks of the semester.
FOCUS hosts evening fellowship and worship events on campus, and students often remain at those events past 10 p.m. They also invite pastors to lead the events on campus and sometimes use sound amplification, including during the last two weeks of the semester.
Ezra applied a “strict scrutiny” standard when evaluating the constitutional burden the law places on students’ free expression. Strict scrutiny means that the government must demonstrate a compelling interest for the law, and it must be enforced by the least restrictive means available.
The Campus Protection Act imposes the limitations in order to promote an “environment conducive to learning,” argued the defendants, which included The University of Texas Board of Regents and the university’s president.
The court agreed the state has a compelling interest in prescribing and controlling conduct in schools—but it also determined that the defendants failed to use the least restrictive means to enforce their compelling interest.
The Campus Protection Act exempts commercial speech from its restrictions, which “betray[ed] the stated goal of preventing disruption and ensuring community safety.” The court also found that local ordinances and university policies already cover noise and amplified sound, making this law unnecessary.
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Because the law prohibits amplified sound but not shouting at full volume or group chanting, the court said the law was too ambiguous and will likely impermissibly limit protected speech.
About the time limitation banning overnight expressive activities from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m., the court found that the law could have banned large gatherings or noise over a certain decibel level. Rather, it banned all expressive activities after 10 p.m.
“The First Amendment does not have a bedtime of 10:00 p.m. The burden is on the government to prove that its actions are narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling governmental interest. It has not done so,” Ezra wrote.
The plaintiffs were represented by The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
“Texas’ law is so overbroad that any public university student chatting in the dorms past 10 p.m. would have been in violation,” FIRE senior attorney Adam Steinbaugh said in a press release. “We’re thankful that the court stepped in and halted a speech ban that inevitably would’ve been weaponized to censor speech that administrators disagreed with.”
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