
When Colleges Confine Free Speech to a ‘Zone,’ It Isn’t Free - jawns
https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/student-speech-and-privacy/when-colleges-confine-free-speech-zone-it-isnt-free
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jawns
This is one of those civil liberties issues that seems like such a flagrant
violation of First Amendment rights that it is shocking that colleges even
dare to try to stamp it out, let alone get away with it. (Filming of police in
public is another one.)

But one of the reasons why colleges have moved in this direction is because of
student complaints.

Having to walk through a line of street preachers, leafleters, protesters,
political advocates, etc. every day just to get to class can certainly be a
minor hassle. This is the era of safe spaces, and although it's totally cool
to have safe-space restrictions in private places, it's totally not cool to do
the same in public spaces.

Beyond that, having protesters with big signs and angry voices smack dab in
the middle of the campus square can be embarrassing for school administrators,
who are under pressure to make campus seem serene and idyllic to prospective
students on a campus tour.

So it can be really tempting, both from students' and administrators' point of
view, to put restrictions on this kind of speech and confine protestors and
others whom the university hasn't rubber-stamped to certain out-of-the-way
locations.

But the Constitution protects public speech even if it might cause minor
inconvenience or irritation to students or administrators.

