As Amy Poehler (or at least her character) once said, “Freedom of Speech!  Look it Up!  It’s in the Thing!”  Perhaps officials at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, Tennessee should move Baby Mama up in their Netflix queue so that they can hear that message.  The school – and the Board of Regents that oversee all Tennessee colleges and universities – are in flagrant denial of the basic applicability of the First Amendment to the campus.

As I explained previously, Pellissippi State requires students to pay for the right to speak anywhere on their own campus.  That’s right.  “FREE” speech will cost you $30 for every exercise at Pellissippi State.  But that’s not all.  If you decide you want to engage in free speech at Pellissippi State it isn’t as “easy” as stopping by the ATM while you formulate your ideas.  Per a Tennessee Board of Regents Policy (See Part V(2)) – evidently applicable to other Tennessee colleges – students must also apply for permission 14 business days (excluding weekends and holidays) in advance.  So if you’re looking for a positive, at least Pellissippi State students have plenty of time to save up to pay for the privilege of exercising their First Amendment rights on their own campus.

As you might expect, Pellissippi State can’t possibly apply such a preposterous policy evenly to all of its students.  If it did it would be overwhelmed with preemptive requests by students for permission to speak to one another, exchange class notes, etc. three weeks or more in advance.  Or alternatively the entirety of the campus would be eerily silent with students walking quietly from class to class across the main quad, the hush punctuated only by the words of the occasional well organized and funded student who had long ago paid to exercise his rights.

Of course, no college is like this — Pellissippi State included.  Its students, in flagrant violation of the school’s policy, congregate on the main quad, speak to one another and even exchange written information.  This is normal human interaction and it’s constitutionally protected.  But when Pellissippi State decides the policy should be applied to stop a speaker it has demonstrated that it will do so.  At least when that speaker is a Christian and his message the Gospel.

Last fall Mark Dew, a student at Pellissippi State, sought to publicly testify to his Christian faith and distribute free literature to his fellow students.  He did this on the main quad without amplification, without impeding student traffic, and in a positive and conversational manner.  Campus police shut him down, claiming that his speech is “solicitation” even though he seeks to exchange only ideas not money.

Mr. Dew tried pleading his case to school officials who were sympathetic but unbending in their view that he would need to pay for the privilege of speaking on the campus.  ADF Allied Attorney Andrew Fox then sent a letter to the school explaining that Mr. Dew is not engaged in “solicitation” but First Amendment protected speech.  Not only did Pellissippi State stick with its story but an attorney for the Tennessee Board of Regents defended the pay-to-speak policy as “reasonable and viewpoint neutral.”

I’m aware of no case that has ever permitted a university to restrict student expression in the manner that Pellissippi State does.  There are no constitutionally permissible waiting periods on a single student’s speech on his own campus – let alone a three week waiting period that will ensure one’s message is stale by the time it is heard.  And free speech doesn’t come with a price tag.  If the University is supposed to be the marketplace of ideas, the central planners at Pellissippi State have regulated the marketplace out of existence.

Fox and ADF filed a complaint yesterday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee against Pellissippi State officials and the members of the Tennessee Board of Regents seeking to have these policies declared unconstitutional.   Please let us know if this TN Board of Regents Policy or anything like it have been enforced on your campus.