AUSTIN (KXAN) — Student groups from The University of Texas at Austin and Dallas filed a lawsuit Wednesday against their schools’ presidents, and the system’s chancellor and board of regents, over a newly enacted state law that prohibits speech on campus during certain times.
The lawsuit, brought by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, argues the law infringes students’ constitutional rights.
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Senate Bill 2972 went into effect Monday. It requires public universities ban “any speech or expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment” that happens on campus between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. It also prohibits sound amplification, percussion instruments and invited speakers from campus during the last two weeks of academic terms.
Republican Sen. Brandon Creighton, the bill’s author, specifically pointed to the April 2024 pro-Palestine campaign on campuses nationwide and what he calls “massive disruption” as reasoning for the bill, in his analysis. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott deployed the state’s Department of Public Safety to stop said protests at UT Austin…