Judge Voids Ban on Racist, Sexist Speech

A federal judge has thrown out a University of Wisconsin rule forbidding racist and sexist speech on campus, saying it violated constitutional guarantees of free speech.

School officials said the ruling Friday ignores the rights of those offended by such speech. But opponents of the anti-harassment rule called the decision an important First Amendment victory.

Judge Robert W. Warren, responding to a lawsuit that called the rule a violation of constitutional rights, said his order went into effect immediately.

“Content-based prohibitions such as that in the (University of Wisconsin) rule, however well-intended, simply cannot survive the screening which our Constitution demands,” Warren said in his decision.

“It’s a disappointment,” said James Sulton, special assistant to the university president for minority affairs. He said opponents of the rule “have left the real rights of people who have been offended ignored.”

Sulton said he expects the university to appeal the ruling within the required 30 days.

The rule was adopted by the university Board of Regents in 1989 after a series of incidents described as racist, such as a 1988 slave auction by a fraternity.

It allowed the university to discipline students, including expelling them from school, if they made racist or discriminatory comments directed at an individual that created an “intimidating, hostile or demeaning environment.”

Warren said the rule was ambiguous and “does not make it clear whether the prohibited speech must actually create a hostile educational environment or whether a speaker must merely intend to create such an environment.”