In Austin, Texas, student organizations from the University of Texas at Austin and Dallas initiated legal action on Wednesday against their university leaders, including UT System Chancellor Dr. John Zerwas and its Board of Regents. The lawsuit challenges a state law that restricts speech on campus during specific hours.

affiliate KXAN reached out to the UT System to comment on the lawsuit.

The UT System stated it has yet to examine the lawsuit because it involves ongoing litigation, preventing them from providing further comments at this moment. Typically, defendants are given 21 days to respond to legal actions.

Filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the lawsuit claims that this new state legislation violates students’ constitutional rights. The filing seeks a temporary injunction from the U.S. District Court in Austin to halt enforcement until a verdict is reached.

JT Morris, FIRE’s senior supervising attorney, highlighted in a statement that “The First Amendment doesn’t have a bedtime.” He asserted that university students deserve free expression at all hours, and Texas cannot simply remove those constitutional rights through legislation.

Morris is representing the student groups involved in the lawsuit, including UT Dallas’s Fellowship of Christian University Students (FOCUS), student newspaper The Retrograde, the musical club Strings Attached, and UT Austin’s Society of Unconventional Drummers. The conservative group Young Americans For Liberty, Inc. (YAL), present at various Texas schools, is also a party to the lawsuit.

About the law being challenged

The disputed Senate Bill 2972, effective Monday, mandates that public universities prohibit “any speech or expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment” from taking place on campus between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. It additionally bans the use of sound amplification, percussion instruments, and prohibits invited speakers on campus during the final two weeks of academic terms.

SB 2979 was authored by Republican Sen. Brandon Creighton, who is set to become Texas Tech’s next chancellor.

In his bill analysis, Creighton specifically referred to the April 2024 pro-Palestine campaign on campuses nationwide and the ensuing “massive disruption.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott deployed the state’s Department of Public Safety to stop the protest at UT Austin.

The above video originally aired on KXAN on April 24, 2024. It covered a protest at UT Austin, which was cited as one of the reasons behind SB 2972.

The law followed a 2019 state law, SB 18, which strengthened free speech protections on campus. That bill was passed amid Republican claims of free speech infringement on campuses.

Prayers, reporting, music: What students could lose

FIRE called the extent of SB 2972 “shocking” and claimed students could face discipline for wearing clothes with political messages, playing music, writing, attending candlelight vigils or talking with friends at night. The law could also apply to celebrations after athletic victories.

Adam Steinbaugh, another FIRE attorney, said in the release that SB 2972 “gives campus administrators a blank check to punish speech, and that authority will inevitably be used to target unpopular speech.”

The students gave examples of activities they claim would be banned under the law:

• FOCUS invites pastors onto campus to lead prayers during finals week;
• The Retrograde often works after 10 p.m. on gathering and reporting the news;
• YAL holds “free speech balls” and protests in the evenings, and invites speakers;
• Society Of Unconventional Drummers holds performances using percussion instruments; and,
• Strings Attached’s concerts, typically held during proscribed times.

FOCUS Committee Chair Juke Matthews, a UT Dallas student, said SB 2972 takes away Christian students’ “support system right at the most stressful time of the term.”

“Under these new rules, we’re at risk of being shut down simply for posting breaking news as it happens,” said The Retrograde’s Editor-in-Chief Gregorio Olivares Gutierrez in the release. “With that threat hanging over our heads, many student journalists across the UT system face the impossible decision between self-censorship and running a story that criticizes the powers on campus.”

The editorial board of UT Austin’s student newspaper, The Daily Texan, echoed Olivares Gutierrez’ concerns in a June 24 editorial.

UT Dallas’ policies on campus speech specify that violations of its speech policies could lead to discipline for students, faculty and staff. Off-campus persons “may be subject to criminal trespass charges, arrest, or other lawful measures.”