Title 17. Education

Chapter 26. Colleges and Universities

Part XIV. Campus Free Expression

17:3399.32        Expressive activities; public postsecondary education institutions; protected

A. Expressive activities at public postsecondary education institutions by students, administrators, faculty members, staff members, and invited guests are protected. 

B. Any person who wishes to engage in noncommercial expressive activity on the campus of a public postsecondary education institution shall be permitted to do so freely, as long as the person’s conduct is not unlawful and does not materially and substantially disrupt the functioning of the institution. 

C. The outdoor areas of a public postsecondary education institution shall be deemed traditional public forums and open to expressive activities. Nothing in this Part shall be interpreted as limiting the right of student expression elsewhere on campus. 

D. A public postsecondary education institution may maintain and enforce reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions narrowly tailored in service of a significant institutional interest only when such restrictions employ clear, published, and content- and viewpoint-neutral criteria and provide for ample alternative means of expression. Any such restrictions shall allow for spontaneous and contemporaneous assembly and distribution of literature. 

E. Nothing in this Part shall be interpreted as preventing institutions from prohibiting, limiting, or restricting expression that the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America does not protect, such as threats and expressions directed to provoke and likely to produce imminent lawless actions, or from prohibiting harassment. 

Added by Acts 2018, No. 666, § 1, eff. June 1, 2018.