On August 26, a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Ohio, to expand the area of Columbus State Community College that permits First Amendment activity. Although the plaintiff does not want to circulate a petition, if he wins, the precedent would also expand petitioning rights. The plaintiff wants to leaflet and to speak. The college says none of this activity is permitted, except in two tiny enclaves of the campus that include only 1% of the square area of the campus. The school is a public institution. The case is Anderson v Harrison, southern district, 2:13cv838. Here is the complaint. Thanks to Alliance Alert for this news.
There should be free speech in all of the open areas on all public colleges. I would actually include almost all so called private colleges as well, since all but two that I’m aware of receive some sort of tax payer funding.
Supreme Court has ruled that receipt of tax dollars (lots of them) does not make entity a “state actor.” As for this particular complaint against a public college, you are certainly correct. I suspect the college has some explaining to do.
There is a court ruling out of Colorado that said that the receipt of tax payer dollars does open up a venue for free speech activities.
There was a court ruling out of Pennsylvania where a federal government official was speaking at a private college and some people wanted to protest there but were prevented from doing this as the college claimed that they were private property and could therefore refuse them the opportunity to protest there. The court ruled that because this speech involved a federal agent and was opened to the public that they had to allow the protestors.