University of Central Florida disbands bias response team to settle Free Speech lawsuit

A federal appellate court ruled against the University of Central Florida in a Free Speech lawsuit around its discriminatory harassment and computer usage policies, leading the university to settle with the conservative group that sued it in early 2021. 

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Key Players

The University of Central Florida (UCF), a public institution located in Orange County, Florida, serves over 70,000 students, making it one of the largest public universities in the United States. 

The Just Knights Response Team (JKRT), a UCF body composed of administrators and campus police, investigates and polices bias-related incidents on and off campus. 

Speech First, a conservative activist group, advocates for Free Speech on college campuses, describing itself as “a membership association of students, parents, faculty, alumni, and concerned citizens who’ve had enough of the toxic censorship culture on college campuses, and who want to fight back.”

Further Details

On Feb. 16, 2021, Speech First filed a federal lawsuit against the university on behalf of three anonymous Speech First members who had attended UCF.

The suit claimed they felt frightened to express conservative opinions on abortion, gay marriage, and affirmative action, fearing they might be subjected to an investigation by the JKRT, as well as punishment under UCF’s harassment policy, which bans “discriminatory harassment,” including comments about a person’s race, ethnicity, religion, age, or sexual orientation, Reuters reported. 

Speech First also wrote in the suit that UCF’s computer policy prevented students from sending messages that “reasonably could be perceived as being harassing, invasive, or otherwise unwanted.” 

These policies were so vague that any speech could be classified as “harassing, invasive, or otherwise unwanted,” violating students’ First Amendment rights, Speech First claimed.  

In response to the lawsuit, UCF told Knight News the school had “a long history of supporting free speech and open expression,” but expected “students and employees to follow state and federal laws that guarantee freedom from unlawful discrimination, and our policies are meant to ensure that.”    

On Feb. 22, Speech First filed a motion to suspend the discriminatory harrassment and computer policies until a court could issue a full ruling, The Free Press reported. 

On July 29, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Presnell, nominated by former President Bill Clinton, denied the motion, rejecting Speech First’s arguments on the discriminatory harassment policy. Presnell also ruled Speech First did not have the legal standing to challenge the JKRT. 

That same day, Speech First filed a motion to appeal. 

Outcome 

Appeals court rules unanimously for Speech First 

On April 21, 2022, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Richard Story and Judge Stanley Marcus, both nominated by Clinton, and Judge Kevin Newsom, nominated by former President Donald Trump, unanimously overturned Presnell’s ruling. 

Newsom wrote that the discriminatory harassment policy “objectively chills speech because its operation would cause a reasonable student to fear expressing potentially unpopular beliefs.”

Marcus wrote that the discriminatory-harassment policy represents the “grave peril posed by a policy that effectively polices adherence to intellectual dogma.” The judges agreed that the policy was “almost certainly unconstitutionally overbroad.”

The ruling also stated Speech First did have the legal standing to sue over the JKRT, and ordered the lower court to reconsider granting the preliminary injunction, The Free Press reported.

UCF settles suit, agrees to disband bias team

On Sept. 23, Speech First and UCF agreed to settle the lawsuit. 

The agreement ends the JKRT and the computer usage and discriminatory harassment policies, The Washington Times reported. UCF also agreed to pay $35,000 to Speech First to cover legal costs. 
Cherise Trump, executive director of Speech First, said she was “happy to say that the students can rest assured their speech rights are in better shape on UCF’s campus today than they were yesterday.”