Two Pennsylvania college students filed federal civil rights lawsuits Wednesday against Pennsylvania State and Temple universities, alleging that “speech codes” at the schools violate their First Amendment rights.
Both plaintiffs are represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group known for its support of religious expression and its opposition to abortion and gay marriage.
Wednesday’s filings in U.S. District Court signaled the organization’s new intention to litigate against colleges and universities nationwide that have “incorporated ideology into their bureaucracy,” said David French, an attorney for the Arizona-based group. “This is the first salvo.”
The first shot was fired against two Pennsylvania schools partly for publicity’s sake, French said. In the last six months, the state has attracted national media attention with its controversial legislative hearings into academic freedom on public campuses.
Given Penn State’s size and prominence, the university’s “Orwellian speech code” made for a particularly inviting target, French said.
Filed on behalf of sophomore Alfred Joseph Fluehr, the suit says that Penn State’s policies regarding conduct are “vague, overbroad,” and suppress “the discussion of controversial viewpoints.”
Fluehr’s suit highlights the university’s policies on harassment and intolerance. Penn State defines intolerance as an “attitude, feeling or belief in furtherance of which an individual acts to intimidate, threaten or show contempt for other individuals or groups based on characteristics such as age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, political belief, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation or veteran status.”
In an e-mail response to The Inquirer, Penn State spokesman Tysen Kendig said the university has no speech code and that it “recognizes and protects the free speech rights of all members of the University community.”
“Our policies do not abridge the right of free speech in any manner,” he said.
The lawsuit against Temple makes similar speech-code allegations. It focuses on the grievances of Christian DeJohn, a history graduate student and a veteran, whose suit contends that two Temple professors with an alleged antimilitary bias engaged in “a campaign of retribution and retaliation that would actively thwart his ability to complete his graduate degree.”
DeJohn’s suit alleges that his relationship with Temple professors Richard Immerman and Gregory Urwin soured after he raised objections to “antiwar e-mails” circulated in the department and to Urwin’s in-class “diatribes against the United States military in Iraq and the alleged failures of President Bush.”
The suit asserts that the professors prevented DeJohn from graduating by inappropriately refusing to approve his master’s thesis.
Urwin could not be reached for comment, and Immerman directed questions to Temple’s press office. Temple spokesman Raymond Betzner said he could not comment on an ongoing litigation.
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(c) 2006, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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