Free Speech on Campus
Professors R. Brown and L. Epstein
LAW 620
Spring 2026
STUDENT SAFETY OR STUDENT SILENCING?
Senate Bill 2972, known as “the Campus Protection Act,” passed by the Texas Legislature in June 2025, restricts expressive activity on public university campuses. The bill was introduced after pro-Palestinian protests took place at universities across the state, including encampments that led to dozens of arrests.
SB 2972 requires “institution[s] of higher education” to adopt a policy that prohibits, in part, the following:
The use of devices to amplify sound during class hours in a manner that intimidates others or interferes with campus operations.
Expressive activities during the last two weeks of a semester in the campus’s common outdoor areas, when conducted in a way that disrupts the university’s functioning.
Camping or erecting tents on campus.
Wearing masks or other means of concealing one’s identity to intimidate others or obstruct enforcement of university rules.
Lowering the institution’s United States or Texas flag with the intent to raise the flag of another nation or a flag representing an organization or group.
Expressive activities on campus between 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m
SB 2972 also directs each university’s governing board to designate specific areas on campus to be used by students and employees to engage in expressive activities.
Lawmakers who had supported a 2019 bill, passed after several universities canceled appearances by conservative speakers, and which included provisions establishing all common outdoor spaces on public campuses as traditional public forums, defended SB 2972. Critics of the bill, however, argue the new law is selective restriction based on political content.
Readings
Please read the law, here.
Review this YouTube video on the bill: “New state bill could add restrictions to protests on public universities,” 25 News KXXV, June 9, 2025 (YouTube)
For background, also read Jeremy W. Peters, “Texas Passed a Law Protecting Campus Speech. It’s on the Verge of Rolling It Back,” New York Times, June 18, 2025; and Campus Reform Respondent, “Texas legislature passes bill to crackdown on campus protests,” June 10, 2025.
This controversy implicates many of the topics we covered in class but especially the justifications for free speech, doctrine (including student speech and content-neutral/content-based/viewpoint discrimination), and social science research. Please review your notes and readings.
Presentations
Defend the proposition that the law’s requirement of a reasonable outlet for student speech constitutes a legitimate effort to balance free speech with safety, and that this law should be upheld. (Olivia Busselle, Michele Danigelis, Suzannah Marsh, Mark Medina, Benjamin Ostfield)
Defend the proposition that the law is unconstitutional under the free speech principles you have learned and also represents poor public policy. (Nicole Bergelson, Lee Cohen, Piper Mik, Sampson Ohringer, Megan Wilhorn)
Consider the law’s history/purpose— in particular the reversal of policy from the 2019 law (passed to limit the ability of schools to exclude controversial speakers) to the current law (passed to increase the ability of schools to restrict protests). Recall the social science perspectives on how people react to speech they favor or disfavor: Is this an example of selective support of free speech? (Lincoln Currie, Declan Dempsey, Andrew Gerber, Sarah Liu, Ian Wang)
Starting with SB2972, how would you redesign the law to achieve the valid state purposes without unnecessarily interfering with speech rights of students? Defend your deletions, additions and changes to the law using free-speech principles you have learned. How would you handle the prior law’s attempt to expand free speech rights by designating the outdoor spaces on campus as traditional public forums? Is this consistent or inconsistent with academic freedom? (Elinor Haddad, Lindsey Miller, Raajvi Patel, Jacob Row, Adam Thaw)
Week off: Joanna Ng, Nandita Raghavan, Olivia Siklich, Gabriela Tsudik, , Carol Zhou