WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Kellogg Community College Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) chapter, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), has filed suit in federal court against Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek, Mich. after campus security arrested three members handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution while talking with students about the club on a sidewalk.
The school claims the club supporters violated its Solicitation Policy, which states that students and others must obtain permission from the school before they engage in any expressive activity anywhere on campus, including distribution of any written material. The lawsuit, Young Americans for Liberty at Kellogg Community College v. Kellogg Community College, explains that the policy is unconstitutional for that reason, and also because it grants college officials too much discretion to restrict the content and viewpoint of student speech if it does not “support the mission of Kellogg Community College (KCC) or the mission of a recognized college entity or activity.”
“Unfortunately, restricting free speech on public university campuses has become the new norm. In response, YAL has launched the national Fight for Free Speech campaign to promote our Bill of Rights and the ideals of civil liberties. Historically, universities have served as a beacon of intellectual thought and we cannot let these open discussions become stifled,” Cliff Maloney Jr., YAL Executive Director, said. “We are thankful to have the support of ADF as we fight against these unconstitutional and restrictive policies.”
On Sept. 20, KCC student Brandon Withers, student Michelle Gregoire, and three other YAL supporters were on a large, open walkway in front of the Binda Performing Arts Center on KCC’s campus talking with students about the club and handing out pocket-sized copies of the U.S. Constitution. Withers, Gregoire, and the other supporters were not blocking access to buildings or pedestrian traffic and were not interfering with any KCC activities or other planned events on campus.
KCC administrators and campus security eventually approached them and said that they were violating the Solicitation Policy because they had not obtained prior permission from KCC and that they were not allowed to conduct expressive activity in this location on campus.
One of the administrators told the supporters that “engaging [students] in conversation on their way to educational places” is a violation of the Solicitation Policy because it is an “obstruction to their education” to ask them questions like, “Do you like freedom and liberty?,” adding that he was concerned that the students from “rural farm areas…might not feel like they have the choice to ignore the question.”
The officials instructed Gregorie, Withers and the others that they must immediately stop engaging in their speech activities and leave campus. When Gregoire and two of the other club supporters politely informed KCC’s chief of public safety that they were going to continue exercising their First Amendment freedoms by talking with students and handing out copies of the Constitution, he arrested them and charged them with trespassing.
Attorney Jeshua T. Lauka of the Grand Rapids law firm David & Wierenga, P.C. is serving as local counsel in the case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.
