Appeals Court Rejects Speech Code

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Wednesday rejected as unconstitutional several parts of the code of conduct for students at the University of the Virgin Islands. Specifically, the court rejected bans on “offensive” speech and on language that causes “emotional distress,” finding that such regulations were far too broad, and could easily limit legitimate freedom of expression. The ruling was consistent with other federal appeals courts rulings, which have generally barred public universities from regulating similar categories of speech.

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[The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruling can be downloaded as a PDF file here.]