A Conservative Student's Playbook for Standing Up for Speech on Campus

Every college has a student handbook, and every student handbook has a free speech policy, and the free speech policy is usually written in the style of a hostage note: the words are all there, but you get the feeling somebody is standing behind the author with a clipboard. Then a table gets moved, a speaker's invitation gets "paused for review," a club's funding gets tangled in a form nobody told you about, and you are the one holding the bag.

Here is what I want you to take from this post. The student who wins these fights is almost never the loudest one. It is the one who knows what kind of school he is dealing with, has the policy in writing, has the dates in a folder, and asks the right question in the right order. Shouting gets you a video. Paperwork gets you a result. This is a plan for the paperwork, step by step, with what to say at each stage.

A plain note before we start: this is a civic guide, not legal advice. Your facts are your own, and when the stakes are real you want a lawyer who has read your documents. But you will be a far better client, and a far harder person to brush off, if you have done the steps below first.

Step one: find out whether your school is public or private

Everything else depends on this, so do it first. The First Amendment says that "Congress shall make no law" abridging the freedom of speech, and through the Fourteenth Amendment that command reaches state and local governments. A state university is a government body. Its president, its deans and its police are government actors, and they are bound by the Constitution when they decide what you may say, print, host or fund.

A private college is not the government. The First Amendment does not apply to it directly, and a student at a private school who says "you are violating my constitutional rights" will get a polite look and a lawyer's letter. That does not mean a private school has no obligations. It has its own promises, and those are where your leverage lives:

• the speech and event policies in its handbook and website, which courts in many states treat as part of the contract between school and student;
• any state law that reaches private schools (a few states have passed statutes on campus speech, and you can find yours on your legislature's website);
• its accreditor's standards and its own public mission statement;
• its trustees, its donors and its alumni, who care a great deal about the school's name.

So the first line in your folder is a single sentence: "Public or private? Who governs it?" Public colleges answer to a board of regents or trustees set by state law. Private ones answer to their own boards. Know the name of the board and where it meets.

Step two: get the speech and event policies in writing

You cannot argue with a rule you have not read. Before anything goes wrong, or at the first sign it will, collect the following and keep copies in a folder you control, not just a link that the school can edit later:

1. The student code of conduct and the speech or expression policy.
2. The rules for registering a student organization, and for losing that registration.
3. The rules for reserving rooms, outdoor space and tables, including any "free speech zone" or notice requirement.
4. The rules for inviting a speaker: deadlines, forms, security fees, who decides.
5. The student activity fee rules: who may apply for money, who decides, what the criteria are.
6. The complaint and appeal procedures, with the deadlines. These are often short, as little as a few days, and missing one is the easiest way to lose.

Save the date you downloaded each one. Policies change in the middle of disputes, which is a nuisance when it happens by accident and a tactic when it happens on purpose.

Now read them the way a lawyer would, looking for three things: words like "offensive," "inappropriate" or "disruptive" with no definition (vague standards invite selective enforcement); any rule that lets one administrator say yes or no with no stated criteria; and any fee that depends on how controversial the speaker is.

That last one has a name in the case law. In Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement (1992), the Supreme Court struck down a county ordinance that let an official set the fee for a permit based on how much hostile reaction the event might draw. The Court's reasoning was simple: if the price of speaking goes up when the crowd gets angrier, then the people who are most likely to be shouted down are the ones who pay the most. Lawyers call it the heckler's veto. If your school bills you for security because of who is expected to protest, you have read the right paragraph.

Step three: know what kind of space you are standing in

Courts do not treat every patch of campus the same. They sort government property into categories, and the category decides how much control the school may exercise. In rough terms:

• Traditional public forums, such as sidewalks and open lawns that have been used for speech for generations. The school can set content-neutral rules about time, place and manner, but it cannot pick and choose by viewpoint.
• Designated or limited public forums, which the school opens for a particular purpose or to particular groups, such as a student activity fund or a meeting-room program. Inside the limits it set, it still may not discriminate by viewpoint.
• Nonpublic forums, such as a classroom during class or a faculty office, where the school can restrict speech more as long as the rules are reasonable and not aimed at a viewpoint.

Four cases carry most of the weight for a student, and I want you to know what each one actually decided.

Healy v. James (1972). A state college in Connecticut refused to recognize a local chapter of Students for a Democratic Society because it disliked the group's philosophy and its national reputation. The Supreme Court held that the college could not deny recognition on that basis. A college campus, the Court said, is not exempt from the First Amendment. Conservatives should remember who won that case, and why: the principle protects the club you disagree with and the club you belong to alike.

Widmar v. Vincent (1981). The University of Missouri at Kansas City opened its buildings to student groups but excluded a religious one. The Court held that once a university creates an open forum, it cannot exclude a group because of the religious content of its speech without a compelling reason.

Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia (1995). The university paid printing costs for dozens of student publications out of a student activity fund, but refused to pay for Wide Awake, a student magazine with a Christian viewpoint. By a 5 to 4 vote, with Justice Kennedy writing, the Court held that this was viewpoint discrimination. If the school opens a funding program for student speech, it may not carve out the viewpoint it dislikes.

Christian Legal Society v. Martinez (2010). The other side of the ledger, and you need to know it. The Hastings College of the Law, part of the University of California, required every recognized student group to accept all comers as members and officers. A Christian group that wanted to require its leaders to share its beliefs was denied recognition. By a 5 to 4 vote, with Justice Ginsburg writing, the Court upheld the policy as a reasonable, viewpoint-neutral condition on a limited forum.

Put the last two side by side and a lesson falls out that will save you months. The question is rarely "is the speech good?" The question is "is the rule neutral, and is it applied to everybody?" A rule that treats every club the same may survive even when it pinches you, as it did in Martinez. A rule that is enforced against the conservative club and waived for the others is the Rosenberger problem, and that is a fight you can win. Your whole case, in most disputes, is selective enforcement. So your job is to find out how the same rule has been applied to other groups.

Also keep in mind the ordinary limits. Under Ward v. Rock Against Racism (1989), a school may enforce content-neutral rules on the time, place and manner of speech if they serve a significant interest, are narrowly tailored and leave open other ways to speak. Amplified sound at 2 a.m. outside a dormitory can be regulated. A table in the student union can be required to be reserved like everybody else's. Do not turn a fair scheduling rule into your battle. Pick fights you can win and explain.

Step four: ask in writing, and ask the right questions

Most administrators are not villains. They are people with a long to-do list who would like the problem to go away. Your first move is a short, courteous, written request that makes the problem easier to solve by agreeing than by stalling. Use email, so there is a date stamp. Here is a script you can adapt:

Dear Dean ___: Our student organization, ___, requested [the room / the funding / recognition / permission to host a speaker] on [date]. On [date] we were told [what you were told]. Could you please send us, in writing, (1) the specific policy provision this decision rests on, (2) the name of the person who made the decision, and (3) the appeal process and deadline? We would also appreciate a copy of how the same policy has been applied to other student organizations this semester. We would like to resolve this quickly and are happy to meet.

Notice what that does. It states the facts without adjectives. It asks for the rule, the decision-maker and the appeal. It asks the comparison question without accusing anyone. And it tells the dean you plan to keep a record, which tends to change the tone of the reply.

If a dean answers by phone, send a follow-up email the same day: "Thank you for speaking with me today. I understood you to say ___. Please let me know if I have misunderstood." Now the verbal "no" is a written "no."

Step five: document everything

This is the unglamorous part, and it is the part that decides whether anyone later takes you seriously. Keep a single running log with the date, the time, the people involved, and what was said or sent. Then keep the evidence:

1. Every email, and every reply, with headers intact.
2. Screenshots of web pages and forms, showing the date. Policies get edited.
3. The names and titles of everyone who made, approved or explained a decision.
4. Written statements from classmates who witnessed an event, signed and dated while memories are fresh.
5. Receipts and costs: deposits paid, security bills, printing, travel for a canceled speaker. A court needs to see harm, and a number is easier to see than a feeling.
6. Comparison evidence: the events, tables, posters and funding approved for other groups under the same rule.

A caution on recording. Some states let you record a conversation if you are a party to it, and others require every party to consent. Check your state's statute before you press record in a meeting, and when in doubt, ask permission or rely on follow-up emails instead. A recording that breaks the law helps nobody.

Keep your own conduct clean while you do this. Do not insult staff, do not post their personal information, do not make threats, jokes or otherwise. A student who stays calm, accurate and a little bit boring is the hardest kind of plaintiff to caricature. If an administrator or a police officer tells you to leave a place, comply, say clearly that you object, write down what happened as soon as you can, and fight it through the process afterward. The sidewalk is the wrong place to win a legal argument.

Step six: use the school's own appeals

It feels slow, and it is slow, but there is a practical reason to run the internal process first. Courts and legal groups want to see that you gave the school a fair chance to fix the problem, and that you met its deadlines. An appeal also puts the question on the desk of someone higher up, such as a vice president, a general counsel or a provost, who has a very different set of incentives from a mid-level staffer. A general counsel reads the case law and knows what Rosenberger cost the University of Virginia.

A good appeal letter is two pages at most:

1. What happened, in dated bullets.
2. What the policy says, with the exact language quoted.
3. How it was applied to you versus others, with your comparison evidence.
4. What you are asking for: the room, the funding, the recognition, a corrected policy, a written apology if one is warranted, and a date by which you need an answer so the event can still happen.

If the school is public, say so in one sentence: "As a public institution, the university is bound by the First Amendment, including the rule that it may not discriminate on the basis of viewpoint in a forum it has opened to student groups." No threats needed. The sentence does its own work.

Copy the board secretary or the student ombudsman if there is one. Calendar every deadline, and send the appeal the day before, not on the last afternoon.

Step seven: when to bring in a legal-defense group

Know where the line is. Handle it yourself, with your folder, when the dispute is a scheduling error, a misunderstanding about a form, or a staffer who needs to be shown the policy. Escalate when any of these is true:

• the school denies recognition, funding or a venue, and the reasons point to viewpoint;
• you have been disciplined, or threatened with it, for speech you believe is protected;
• the policy is vague enough that it is chilling other students too;
• the school has ignored your appeal, or told you the process is over without an answer on the merits;
• a deadline for the event is close, because injunctions move on timelines the school will not choose for you.

Several nonprofit legal organizations take student speech cases, and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and Alliance Defending Freedom are two well-known examples. Most have an intake form on their websites. They tend to look at the same things: public or private, a documented decision, a comparison with other groups, and proof you used the appeal. Hand them a clean folder and you have already done half their screening.

Know the remedy, too. A public university student can sue under federal civil rights law, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which allows suits against state officials who violate constitutional rights. In Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski (2021), the Supreme Court held 8 to 1 that a student whose rights were violated can seek nominal damages, even a single dollar, to have a court say so, which keeps the case alive even if the school changes its policy once it has been sued. That decision involved a student at a Georgia public college who was told he could not share his faith outside the designated "free speech zone." It matters because schools used to rescue themselves from lawsuits by quietly rewriting the rule and declaring the case moot.

What do you say when you call? Short and plain: "I am a student at ___, a public university. On [date] the school [action]. I have the policy, my emails and the appeal result. I am looking for help evaluating whether this violates the First Amendment." That is a call a lawyer wants to take.

What this playbook will not do

I owe you the honest limits.

First, you will not win every fight, and some fights you should not take. Martinez shows that a neutral rule can bind you. A club that wants to host an event but missed a reservation deadline has a scheduling problem, not a censorship problem, and crying censorship over a missed deadline spends credibility you need later.

Second, a win in court does not change a campus culture. The students in the next dorm will still have opinions about you. What the law gives you is the right to speak and to be treated like everyone else, not the right to be liked. The long game is to be the kind of club that other students can join, argue with and respect.

Third, free speech belongs to everybody. The same rules that protect your chapter's speaker also protect the speaker you would never invite. Conservatives win this fight over time by being the people who defend the principle consistently. If you only show up for speech when it is your own, you are a lobbyist, not a defender of liberty. For more on how the cases actually line up, see Seven Myths About Free Speech on Campus, Tested Against the Cases and Campus Free Speech From Berkeley in 1964 to the Chicago Principles. For the broader doctrine, read Eight Supreme Court Cases That Explain What the First Amendment Protects and Seven Free Speech Myths, From Hate Speech to Shouting Fire in a Theater.

The bottom line

• Public or private first. The First Amendment binds a state university and does not bind a private one. At a private school, your leverage is the contract in the handbook, state law, trustees and donors.
• Win on selective enforcement. Rosenberger protects you when a school treats your viewpoint differently, and Martinez shows a neutral rule may stand. Collect proof of how the rule hits other groups.
• Paper wins. Get the policies, ask in writing, keep a dated log, save every email and screenshot, and calendar every appeal deadline.
• Stay calm and use the process. Appeal internally, keep your conduct spotless, and bring in a legal-defense group when the facts show viewpoint bias and you have a clean record.
• Defend the principle for everyone. The student who protects the speech he dislikes is the one nobody can paint as a hypocrite.