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Media Spreads the Word About Stand Up For Speech Lawsuit Victories

Last week, in the space of 24 hours, ֭’s scored two victories in the fight for First Amendment rights on campus. On December 2, 2014, the agreed to a settlement with two students, Merritt Burch and Anthony Vizzone, who had been stopped from passing out copies of the U.S. Constitution and ordered to keep their protest against the National Security Agency inside the Hilo campus’ free speech zone. The next day, California’s settled with student Vincenzo Sinapi-Riddle, who sued the school with ֭’s help after he was forbidden to circulate a petition outside of Citrus’s designated free-speech zone.

Check out some of the recent news coverage of the victories:

  • The Chronicle of Higher Education, “,” Andy Thomason
  • College Insurrection, “,” Aleister
  • Minding the Campus, “,” Editor
  • Hawaii Tribune-Herald, “,” Colin Stewart
  • Hawaii News Now, “,” Associated Press
  • Ka Leo O Hawai'i, “,” Alden Alayvilla
  • Honolulu Star Advertiser, “,” Timothy Hurley
  • Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “,” Associated Press
  • The College Fix, “,” Greg Piper
  • San Gabriel Valley Tribune, “,” Melissa Masatani
  • One News Now, “,” Bob Kellogg
  • FoxNews.com, “”
  • Campus Safety, “,” CS Staff
  • The College Fix, “,” Greg Piper

FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project aims to help plaintiffs file lawsuits against public colleges and universities with unconstitutional speech codes circuit. While there are currently SUFS cases pending in the , for the first time since the project began, we do not have a case in the Ninth Circuit. Colleges and universities in that part of the country should not relax, however. We will keep working with students and faculty to attack unconstitutional speech codes in court until schools voluntarily change their policies to comply with the First Amendment.

FIRE applauds Merritt, Anthony, Vinny, and all of the student-plaintiffs who have already joined us in standing up for free speech on campus. Their courage has vindicated not only their own rights but also those of 70,000 fellow students throughout the and at .

If you’re a student and you’ve been censored by your college or university, FIREwants to help! Email us at standup@thefire.org and visit the to learn more about the project.

Check back to The Torch for more updates, and help spread the word by tweeting #standup4speech.

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