{"id":6638,"date":"2025-10-16T13:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/6638\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T13:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:01:08","slug":"court-temporarily-blocks-overnight-ban-on-expression-at-university-of-texas-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/6638\/","title":{"rendered":"Court temporarily blocks overnight ban on expression at University of Texas System"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published on Higher Ed Dive<\/a>. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Higher Ed Dive newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Dive Brief:<\/p>\n

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked University of Texas System officials from enforcing a state law that bans free speech and expression on public campuses between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.<\/p>\n

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sued leaders of the UT system<\/a> in September on behalf of student groups who argued the law violated their First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra, a Reagan appointee, found that plaintiffs raised \u201csignificant First Amendment issues\u201d with the law and its application, and he granted a preliminary injunction on enforcement while the case plays out. <\/p>\n

Dive Insight:<\/p>\n

Texas passed SB 2972, earlier this year in the wake of 2024\u2019s wave of pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. campuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn April 2024, universities across the nation saw massive disruption on their campus,\u201d state Sen. Brandon Creighton, the primary author of the bill, wrote in a statement of intent<\/a>. \u201cProtesters erected encampments in common areas, intimidated other students through the use of bullhorns and speakers, and lowered American flags with the intent of raising the flag of another nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In late September, Creighton, was named chancellor and CEO<\/a> of the Texas Tech University System.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Along with specifically prohibiting First Amendment-protected activity overnight, the law also bars the campus community from inviting speakers to campus, using devices to amplify speech and playing drums or other percussive instruments during the last two weeks of any term.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In its complaint, FIRE called the law “blatantly unconstitutional.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe First Amendment doesn\u2019t set when the sun goes down,\u201d FIRE senior supervising attorney JT Morris said in a September statement. \u201cUniversity students have expressive freedom whether it\u2019s midnight or midday, and Texas can\u2019t just legislate those constitutional protections out of existence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ezra agreed in his ruling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe First Amendment does not have a bedtime of 10:00 p.m.,\u201d the judge wrote. \u201cThe burden is on the government to prove that its actions are narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling governmental interest. It has not done so.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his ruling, Ezra wrote that the law\u2019s free speech restrictions were not content-neutral and so must survive a strict legal test for the government to show that the law is the least restrictive possible to achieve a \u201ccompelling\u201d goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The judge pointed to public posts by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the bill\u2019s statement of intent, both decrying the pro-Palestinian protests. Abbott described the protests as antisemitic and called for the arrest and expulsion of protestors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe statute is content-based both on its face and by looking to the purpose and justification for the law,\u201d Ezra wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ezra also highlighted that the statute carved out an exception for commercial speech in his ruling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDefendants betray the stated goal of preventing disruption and ensuring community safety by failing to expand the Bans to commercial speech,\u201d he wrote. \u201cStudents can engage in commercial speech that would otherwise violate the Bans simply because it is not \u2018expressive activities,\u2019 no matter how disruptive.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the law, the University of Texas at Austin adopted a more limited version of the policy that only banned overnight expressive activities in its common outdoor area that generate sound to be heard from a university residence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Ezra concluded the pared-down policy wasn\u2019t enough to protect students\u2019 constitutional speech rights, as UT-Austin could change it or enforce it subjectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe threat of prosecution arises not only from UT\u2019s adopted policy but also from the legislative statute,\u201d the judge wrote. \u201cAs adopted, UT Austin is not currently in compliance with the statute, and at any point could change or be instructed to change its policies to comply with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

FIRE cheered the injunction on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thankful that the court stepped in and halted a speech ban that inevitably would\u2019ve been weaponized to censor speech that administrators disagreed with,\u201d FIRE Senior Attorney Adam Steinbaugh said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In its lawsuit, the free speech group has asked the judge to permanently block the law\u2019s enforcement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published on Higher Ed Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4472,6045,6044,6663,27,29,28,873,6662,4100,6664],"class_list":["post-6638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-brandon-creighton","tag-david-alan-ezra","tag-preliminary-injunction","tag-statement-of-intent","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-tech-university","tag-the-foundation-for-individual-rights","tag-university-of-texas","tag-university-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}