BOOM: Judge Issues Massive Punishment to College That Bullied Pro-Gun Student

In 2015, a college student named Nicole Sanders and a friend were recruiting fellow students to join the Young Americans for Liberty organization, utilizing an anti-President Obama and a pro-gun rights sign, but soon found themselves having run afoul of their school’s administrators and free speech policies.
According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Sanders was told by an administrator at Blinn College in Brenham, Texas, that she needed “special permission” and the approval of at least four administrators in order to use the signs or otherwise express herself politically on campus. That prompted Sanders to file a lawsuit against the school, accusing it of violating her First Amendment right to free speech.

Sanders challenged not only the restrictive “permission” the college insisted on requiring before allowing any political speech, but also the tiny “free speech zones” where the school permitted free expression to take place.

That lawsuit just ended in a victorious settlement for Sanders, who was awarded $50,000 for damages plus legal fees. Perhaps more importantly, Blinn College must now abide by the First Amendment and its administrators were ordered to revise their speech policies accordingly.

FIRE staff with #standup4speech plaintiff Nicole Sanders from @blinncollege at @TheFreedomFest pic.twitter.com/YDdsO6GIXW

— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) July 9, 2015

“I am happy that Blinn College agreed to make important changes to its student speech policies that not only bring them in line with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, but also make it less likely that students will have their rights trampled in the future,” Sanders declared.
“I truly hope that the legacy of this case will make Blinn a place where free speech rights are both exercised by students and protected by the administration,” she added.
The lawsuit by Sanders received a huge assist from the FIRE organization, which took on the case as part of its larger Stand Up For Speech Litigation Project, in which it has filed free speech lawsuits against a dozen different public colleges and universities that have oppressed the free speech rights of students.

This is the ninth consecutive victory for FIRE in the project, which thus far has won suits protecting and restoring the free speech rights of more than a quarter million students across the country. The lawsuits have collected more than $400,000 in settlements for the aggrieved students as well.
“Because Nicole bravely stood up for what she knew was right, the free speech rights of more than 17,000 students at Blinn College have been restored today,” said Catherine Sevcenko, director of litigation for FIRE.
“Students should never be confronted by armed police officers and forced through bureaucratic red tape when trying to express themselves on the issues they are passionate about, whether it’s gun rights or gay rights,” she added.
This is excellent news, and certainly bodes well for the future of college and university campuses, which as of late have more resembled cloistered bastions of intolerance than the open markets of competing ideals they are supposed to be.
H/T teaparty.org