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Texas students challenge 10 p.m. ban on campus free speech [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2025-09-03  

Lawmakers in Texas passed a "Campus Protection Act" which banned "speech or expressive conduct protect by the First Amendment" on campus after 10 p.m.: a far-right haymaker flailing at students' constitutional rights. The broad prohibitions could knock out university newspapers, prayer groups, and live music as well as more obvious targets such as protests and visiting speakers. Even "just chatting with friends" will be subject to the law—at least for those seen by authorities as deserving enforcement. Student groups have filed a lawsuit to block it, supported by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

"The First Amendment doesn't set when the sun goes down," said FIRE senior supervising attorney JT Morris. "University students have expressive freedom whether it's midnight or midday, and Texas can't just legislate those constitutional protections out of existence." … That is a shocking prohibition of protected speech at public universities. Under the new law, universities now have the power to discipline students at nighttime for wearing a hat with a political message, playing music, writing an op-ed, attending candlelight vigils — even just chatting with friends. "This law gives campus administrators a blank check to punish speech, and that authority will inevitably be used to target unpopular speech," said FIRE attorney Adam Steinbaugh. "Administrators have plenty of ways to prevent disruptive conduct that do not involve such a broad censorship mandate."

Texas universities have been among the most censorial in recent years; just last week, a federal judge finally reversed a drag ban at West Texas A&M imposed by an administrator who boasted that it was unconstitutional.

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/09/03/texas-students-challenge-10-p-m-ban-on-campus-free-speech.html

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