Student Sues Texas College After Being Told Gun Rights Sign Needs ‘Special Permission’
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, www.thefire.org
Blinn College student Nicole Sanders filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the public institution near Houston today after being told by an administrator last February that she would need “special permission” to display a gun rights sign and collect signatures for her student group on campus. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) assisted Sanders in filing the federal lawsuit, the tenth lawsuit filed as part of FIRE’s national Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project.
The lawsuit challenges Blinn’s policy of restricting speech to a tiny “Free Speech Area,” as well as the process that led the college to take over a month to approve a palm-sized card Sanders wanted to hand out to students explaining their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights.
“Blinn College administrators sacrificed the First Amendment in order to stop Nicole from talking about the Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments,” said FIRE Associate Director of Litigation Catherine Sevcenko. “But public colleges like Blinn are bound by the First Amendment, which gives all citizens—including college students—the right to speak out on the issues they are passionate about, whether gun rights or gay rights.”
On February 2, 2015, Sanders and a fellow activist sought to recruit students on the Brenham campus of Blinn College to join Young Americans for Liberty, a student organization Sanders was forming. The two held signs for an hour and a half outside of the Student Center. One sign read “LOL,” with the Obama presidential campaign logo replacing the “O,” and another sign stated, “Defend Gun Rights on Campus.”
This makes me sick. What type of college restricts the speech of their students? Blinn College, apparently, and probably dozens of others across the country, sadly. The glimmer of hope comes in the form of Nicole Sanders, a standout patriot and advocate of our Constitutional rights.
This student knew the school administrator was infringing on her rights as an American, and she acted on it without hesitation. As society becomes more sensitive about the advocation of guns, the more we as supporters must stand our ground like this exceptional individual.
I hope the court acknowledges the injustices that were imposed onto this law-abiding student. The school’s administration trampled on her freedom of speech and in the process prevented her from talking openly about the Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments. This disgusts me as an American who loves his country and the statutes we were founded on.
Nicole Sanders, thank you for your patriotic service. If we had a Defend and Carry trophy for Standout Citizen of the Day, we’d be sending it your way.
