For Immediate Release February 20, 2004News from the Alliance Defense Fund Media Relations
Contact 480-444-0020
University of Oklahoma sued for censorship policy
Policy is unconstitutional; suppression
of student newspaper must stop now
NORMAN, OK – Students at the University of Oklahoma sued the school today on two issues: an unconstitutional censorship policy and the way the policy is used to suppress speech.
The civil rights lawsuit, Thomas and Wickett v. David Boren, et al, was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.
Kevin Theriot, an attorney with the Kansas City office of the Alliance Defense Fund, said “The university’s policy specifically discriminates against religious speech. This is viewpoint discrimination; it’s censorship and it’s unconstitutional.” The Alliance Defense Fund is a national organization defending our first liberty. ADF allied attorney Stephen Cale is local counsel.
Theriot added that the United States Supreme Court settled this issue nine years ago in Rosenberger v. the University of Virginia when the court said funds provided to 118 other student groups could not be denied to a student newspaper simply because of the paper’s religious viewpoint.
The facts in the University of Oklahoma case are very similar to the facts in Rosenberger. At OU, a student group called Beacon OU publishes a newspaper, the Beacon OU. The student group has been denied equal access to student fees because the Beacon OU publication has a religious viewpoint. The Beacon received $150 from student fees in 2003, while The Undercurrent, a student newspaper promoting “alternatives to monogamy,” received $4,750. The distribution of the student newspapers is similar.
“When are universities going to return to being bastions of free speech instead of ramparts of censorship? Universities are supposed to be forums for the free exchange of ideas, not swamps of free speech suppression,” Theriot said.
The Alliance Defense Fund serves people of faith; it provides strategy, training, and funding in the legal battle for religious liberty, sanctity of life, and traditional family values.
www.telladf.org
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Richard K. Jefferson
Director of Media Relations
15333 N. Pima Road, Ste 165
Scottsdale, AZ 85260
(480) 444-0020 ext. 404
rjefferson@telladf.org
www.alliancedefensefund.org< /A>
Stephen Cale
Stephen L. Cale, PLLC
Attorney & Counselor at Law
3523 N.W. 36th Street
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73112
Phone: (405) 946-7272
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