First Amendment Rights Case Study

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Based on a serious of previous cases, the First Amendment rights of freedom association and speech should apply to college students on a university campus as it does in any other public forum. Therefore, the university should not impose excessive restrictions on students’ expression of these rights, and, if done so, the university should have accurate and applicable justification as to why it must limit these rights.

The Healy court held that the First Amendment does, “…authorize advocacy, group activities, and espousal of change. Purposes must be drawn between advocacy, which is entitled to full protection, and action, which is not. Petitioners may, if they so choose, preach the propriety of amending or even doing away with any or all campus …show more content…

Since the students merely advocated for change during the organized demonstrations, President Franklin had no grounds to violate the students’ First Amendment rights. Also, the lower court’s ruling that allowed the President the authority to ban any organization whose beliefs are inconsistent with the mission of the university was erred based on the decision of the Healy court that authorized students the ability to advocate for their concerns. Therefore, the Concerned White Men organization should be allowed to advocate for their beliefs, although they differ with the traditional beliefs of the University. Also, the “X-Men” organization should be allowed on campus because the previous court’s decision also gave group activities, such as an organized game like Assassin, constitutional

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